BULLETIN BOARD
[ ARTICLE 1]
Overall, around 2% of households had experienced a burglary in the last year. Households
with no security measures were around ten times more likely to have been victims
than households with simple security measures such
as deadlocks on doors and window
locks.
[ ARTICLE 2 ]
Recorded domestic burglary rates are generally evenly spread across England and
Wales but there are also areas with a high concentration of offences.
[ ARTICLE 3 ]
Landlord jailed for fire safety offences
First one. A landlord has achieved notoriety for being the first person to be sent
to jail for failing to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
(FSO). Mehmat Parlak (P) received a four-month custodial sentence after pleading
guilty to eight FSO offences. In addition, his company was fined £21,000.
Fatal incident. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) took the decision to prosecute P following
a fatal fire at one of his properties. The LFB investigated and found that P had
not addressed his duties under the FSO, which ultimately led to the death of an
individual.
Summary of the breaches. In this case, the list of what had been done was far shorter
than what hadn’t. The investigating officers found that neither P nor his company
had completed a fire risk assessment. No appropriate fire safety arrangements were
in place; no smoke detection devices were fitted, nor were there any emergency signs.
And routes that may have been used to escape from a fire were blocked.
Extreme case
. Although sending individuals to prison is not something that happens
very often, this case proves that if the investigating inspector feels that the
breaches are severe enough to put lives at risk, they will push for tough penalties
to be imposed.