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The owners of a hotel in the Cheylesmore suburb of Coventry have been fined nearly £40,000 after breaching fire safety regulations.

Cumberland Court Ltd, the company which owns the Hylands Hotel on Warwick Road, was prosecuted after inspections from the local fire service uncovered a series of shocking safety breaches.

Officers from West Midlands Fire Service found a range of problems, including non-functioning fire alarm systems on all levels of the building and blocked, locked or poorly maintained fire exits. These issues suggest that the hotel’s management as well as its staff had neglected their fire safety training.

For breaching fire safety laws and for failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued by the fire service, Cumberland Court Ltd was fined £22,000. At Warwick Crown Court, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said:

“I take into account that the defendants did take steps to remedy the deficiencies, but they were not undertaken with the urgency they should have been.
“There was a failure to prioritise fire safety measures.”

The firm was also ordered to pay more than £18,000 in court costs, and the company’s director Karim Moloo was given a suspended prison sentence of two months.