Record fire safety handed to Blackpool care home owner
The owner of a care home in the Lancashire town of Blackpool has been given a landmark fine for fire safety breaches after a court ruled that he put the lives of his residents at serious risk.
David Moseley, the owner of the firm DM Care and the Ambassador Care Home in South Shore, was prosecuted after a fire broke out at the property in January 2012. This is when a large number of fire safety breaches were discovered at the 40-resident care home, suggesting that Mr Moseley and his management team had not undergone proper fire safety training. The breaches included the following:
- A fire exit route blocked by a Santa’s Grotto
- Failure to have approved fire detection equipment
- Lack of working fire alarms
After admitting a total of seven breaches of fire safety regulations, Mr Moseley was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay more than £5,000 in court costs. This is the largest fine for such an offence ever handed out in Lancashire, as well as being the largest that Fleetwood Magistrates’ Court could impose. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s Paul Ratcliffe said of the landmark fine:
“It must surely stand as a powerful deterrent for anyone who might suppose ensuring fire safety in premises they are responsible for is an option and not an obligation in law.”