A landlord was fined £20,000 after admitting he put the lives of five residents at risk.
Residents became trapped upstairs during a fire in Worthing last year, weeks after their landlord was told their fire alarm did not work.
The judge said Terry Millis, 62, had a ‘high level’ of culpability and fined him £20,000 for ‘failures’ in the lead up to the fire.
The court heard Millis had contacted a company to repair the fire alarm two months before the fire, but the work had not been done.
Sentencing him, district judge Tessa Szagun said Millis had a ‘high level’ of culpability.
She said, “The purpose of sentencing in this type of case is to protect the safety of individuals living in such premises by ensuring that there is no financial gain by any person cutting corners.
“(There is) also a necessity to deter others from doing so.”
Millis was fined £20,000, reduced from £30,000 by his guilty plea, and he was ordered to pay £1,743.47 costs to West Sussex County Council.
