The landlord of a property in Plymouth has been fined for risking the lives of a young mother and her child by providing a dangerous gas oven.

Giles Boardman was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on 29 August following an investigation.

HSE began inquiries when Plymouth City Council alerted the body to the property’s lack of a gas safety certificate. The council had asked Mr Boardman to provide a certificate on several occasions. HSE served an Improvement Notice, requiring Mr Boardman to provide a landlord’s gas safety check, which he failed to do by the notice expiry date.

In April 2014, an engineer called in by Mr Boardman found problems with the gas controls that controlled the gas flow for oven and notified HSE. The oven was classified by the Gas Safe registered engineer as ‘immediately dangerous’.

Mr Boardman pleaded guilty to two breaches of gas safety regulations and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act. He was fined a total of £4,050 and ordered to pay costs of £513.

“Landlords have a legal duty to carry out gas safety checks which are there to protect their tenants from death or injury,” said HSE inspector Simon Jones after the hearing.

“In this case, Mr Boardman ignored repeated requests to carry out the checks and, as a result, a serious fault with the oven went undetected until discovered by an engineer.”

Further information about landlords’ responsibilities for gas supply can be found on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords.