A property owner from Chester has been landed with a £32,000 fine after facing 45 charges relating to houses branded as death-traps.

The most serious hazards found at homes owned by Gary Fixter included dangerous and untested electrical installations, water visibly running down internal walls and broken fire alarms - putting residents’ lives at risk for years.

Fixter, from Chester, pleaded guilty to 45 charges under the Housing Act 2004 and was fined £32,000 as well as being ordered to pay costs of £13,600 after admitting the offences at a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.

The 45 offences involved failing to comply with improvement notices, breaches of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) management regulations and failing to produce documents upon request.

The offences related to his ownership and management of two multiple-occupancy homes, one on Alexandra Road, Birkenhead and the other on Rake Lane, Wallasey , as well as a self-contained flat on Grange Road, West Kirby.

The improvement notices were served after inspections were carried out by Wirral Council’s Housing Standards Team who found each property in serious disrepair coupled with inadequate property management which had put tenants at risk for a number of years.

The council officers found a variety of defects or hazards which rendered most of the living conditions unacceptable and posed a risk to the health and safety of the tenants.

The most serious hazards uncovered by the inspection included long-standing penetrating dampness, with water visibly running down internal walls leading to excessive damp and mould growth; defective fire alarm systems placing the occupants’ lives at risk by compromising their ability to escape the building in the event of a fire and dangerous and untested electrical installations requiring substantial works to make them safe.

This was the second time Fixter had been prosecuted by a local authority. Two years ago he was prosecuted at Scarborough Magistrates Court for previous breaches of the HMO regulations.