A property manager who failed to fit smoke alarms to a rented house where two toddlers died in a fire has been jailed for 12 months. In a landmark case, Kamal Bains was told that not installing smoke detectors to the property was a “significant cause” of the deaths of three-year-old Logan Taylor and Jake Casey, two. Leeds Crown Court heard that the boys died in a fire caused by an electrical fault in a TV in their bedroom on 20 February 2016. Their mother, Emma Taylor, had tried to rescue her children but was beaten back by flames. Bains, whose property company managed the house in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, had pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. But during the trial, those charges were dropped and he admitted a breach of health and safety law, which is thought be the first of its kind. West Yorkshire Police said the prosecution was the first to be brought since legislation was passed in October 2015, which requires private sector landlords to have at least one smoke alarm installed on every storey of their properties.
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