Company Director Prosecuted For Breaching Fire Safety Regulations

Tuesday, 18 March 2025 11:47

By Dominic Kureen @WriteOnDom

(c) Shutterstock - Generic image of Worthing seafront

A company director has been sentenced after pleading guilty to breaching fire safety regulations at a high-rise residential building in Worthing.

Mr Anthony Coates, a company director from Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, was prosecuted by West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service for significant breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (2005) at a sentencing in Lewes Crown Court.

Coates was the director of two companies involved in the purchase and renovation of Columbia House in Romany Road, Worthing.

The former office building was being converted into a seven-storey high-rise block of flats when Coates allowed the premises to be occupied before the escape routes (the corridor and stairs) were signed off as fire safety compliant.

At a hearing in January, Coates pleaded guilty to five charges under the Fire Safety Order for the offences committed in 2022.

The court heard that a Fire Safety Inspecting Officer who was working on the building regulation consultation for this premises noticed lots of vehicles in the residents’ car park when passing by.

Upon investigation it became apparent that residents had wrongly been allowed to move into the properties.

This negligence endangered approximately 30 residents, and the breaches undermined the building’s fire safety strategy; if a fire were to occur, anyone living or visiting the flats was placed at an increased risk of potential death or serious injury.

On Friday (14 March), the severity of the offences was acknowledged by the court when Coates was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, along with a requirement to undertake 150 hours of unpaid community work, and fined £1,000.

Area Manager Dave Bray, Head of Fire Safety for West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, said:

“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this case and believe it serves as a strong reminder to all those responsible for the design, construction, occupation and management of premises in West Sussex, to which the Fire Safety Order applies, that the duties placed upon them by the Fire Safety Order are taken seriously.

“Duty holders are reminded that the Fire Safety Order is in place to protect life in the event of a fire. As such, the highest sanctions possible will be sought where these failings endanger the lives of residents and visitors to West Sussex.”

Advice and guidance for duty holders can be found online.

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