04 Nov 2011
Magistrates in Cambridge have heard how a local restaurant owner allowed staff to live in unsafe conditions above the venue.
Ibrahim Sultan Miyah was ordered to pay out more than £15,000 after housing standard officers found workers living above the Calcutta Club in Mill Road, Cambridge.
In February 2010, Cambridge City Council had issued an order banning Miyah from letting people live in the rooms until a secondary fire escape had been put in place.
Miyah, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, was convicted of breaching this order in December 2010.
When inspectors visited the premises in early 2011, they found that three of the first floor rooms were occupied by workers, despite no fire escape being provided.
Miyah, who no longer has any connection to the former Calcutta Club, pleaded guilty at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court to breaching prohibition orders. He had previously pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing.
Miyah was fined £12,000 for breaching the Housing Act 2004 and ordered to pay £3,500 in costs.
Copyright Press Association 2011