A landlord was fined £24,840 yesterday for contravening health and safety regulations at the 12 Yarmouth properties which he owns.By failing to provide a written record of gas-heater safety checks, Madhu Bhajanehatti could have put his tenants at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A landlord was fined £24,840 yesterday for contravening health and safety regulations at the 12 Yarmouth properties which he owns.

By failing to provide a written record of gas-heater safety checks, Madhu Bhajanehatti could have put his tenants at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The 34-year-old was also ordered to pay costs of £13,481 after he pleaded guilty to 12 counts of failing to provide written records of Corgi- registered checks of gas heaters at the flats in Wellington Road and Britannia Road.

Bhajanehatti, of Keston, Kent, appeared at Yarmouth Magistrates' Court to admit failing to comply to health and safety notices issued under the Gas Safety (installation and use) Act 1998.

He was prosecuted under provisions in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The 12 offences relate to documents that should kept by law of Corgi- registered gas installers who worked at, or inspected, the flats in Wellington Road and Britannia Road.

The checks are necessary to make sure that tenants are not put at risk of being poisoned by carbon monoxide leaking from faulty gas heaters.

Magistrates heard that Health and Safety Executive inspectors first asked Bhajanehatti to produce written proof of gas-heater checks in February last year.

After failing to provide the documents, another notice was issued to him in July 2007 which he also ignored - leading to yesterday's court appearance and guilty plea.

He was fined £2,070 for each of the 12 health and safety gas-heater counts, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £13,481.02 and made to pay a government surcharge of £15.

In 2006/7, eight people died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the UK from faulty or leaking gas heaters.