Two Dudley men who failed to obtain a gas safety record for a property they were renting out have been ordered to pay fines and costs of more than £3,000 for putting tenants' lives at risk.
Brothers Philip and Roger Hale were investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after council housing officers found no trace of a gas safety record for the property.

HSE wrote to the men requesting a copy of the landlord's gas safety record, which is a legal requirement. However, they admitted that they had not had one for eight years. The tenants also told HSE that they had never seen a gas safety record at any point in their five-year tenancy.

HSE also found that two gas fires provided by the landlords to the tenants had been condemned by National Grid following an inspection by them after a gas smell had been detected in the property.

The two men were prosecuted by HSE at Dudley Magistrates' Court on 27 January for breaching gas safety regulations. Both pleaded guilty to breaching the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Philip Hale was fined £1,000 and Roger Hale was fined £1,500 and both were ordered to pay costs of £464 each.