Record fine after gas deaths

A record fine of £350,000 has been imposed on a council's housing chiefs after their "lamentable" failings led to two tenants dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Father-of-three Noel Porter-Blake, 56, and his partner Anne Marie Worboys, 36, were gassed by fumes from a boiler that Hammersmith and Fulham failed to maintain properly.

Their deaths follow an almost identical incident five years previously in which another tenant died.

To the fury of the victim's relatives, no one from the Labour-run borough has been prosecuted or dismissed following the incident. Mr Porter-Blake's family is expected to receive compensation from the council running into thousands of pounds after it admitted liability.

Sentencing the authority to an "exemplary penalty" at Blackfriars Crown Court, Judge Timothy Pontius condemned its "prolonged dereliction of duty to its tenants".

He said: "The lamentable history of failure fully to accept its responsibility dates back a considerable number of years. It is all the more regrettable that an earlier tragic death arose in precisely the same circumstances only five years before the two deaths in this case.

"That earlier tragedy provided the plainest salutary lesson imaginable, which should fully have been learned. Regrettably, it was not."

Solicitor James Bell, representing Mr Porter-Blake's family, said: "No amount of money can properly reflect the loss of a loved one.

"The only real deterrent to force directors and managers to have proper safety standards is the threat of a prison sentence.

"The Crown Prosecution Service-decided against manslaughter-charges as the council employeeswho were responsible for boiler and flue maintenance were not sufficiently senior in the organisation to be called ' controlling minds'."

The court was told last month that paramedics went to the flat in Sharnbrook House on the West Kensington Estate in January 1998 after a lodger found the pair prone in the lounge. Ms Worboys was pronounced dead at the scene and Mr Porter-Blake died in hospital after three weeks in a coma.

A subsequent Health and Safety Executive investigation revealed that boilers in several other properties, as well as the one involved in the tragedy, had not had yearly gas safety checks introduced in 1994 precisely to cut the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. The colourless, odourless gas is thought to kill up to 30 people a year in the UK.

The council was prosecuted previously over the death of Dena Goldstein, 47, who died from gas poisoning at a flat in Devonport Road, Shepherd's Bush, in 1993.

Following the latest tragedy, five housing officers were investigated, but only two - Alan Tennock and Milton Parnell - faced disciplinary proceedings that led to dismissal. However, they were reinstated on appeal, although they have now left the council.

The CPS considered prosecution for manslaughter, which could have gone against either the council or the officers concerned, but the charges were later reduced to breaches of health and safety.

Hammersmith and Fulham, which was also ordered to pay £30,750 in costs to the HSE, has apologised to the victims' relatives. A council spokesman said: "All the boilers on the West Kensington estate have been replaced. The new sealed-unit boilers are specifically designed to prevent carbon monoxide leaks.

"All our maintenance contracts have been reviewed and re-let and we now have a computerised appointments system to ensure inspections are not missed."

The HSE said the fine was the highest ever for an accident of its kind. Inspector Tim Galloway said: "These are very substantial penalties which reflect the severity of the offences. This case shows how vital it is that landlords have the right procedures, the right management and the right resources to make sure that their gas appliances are properly installed and maintained."