Shropshire property developer gets courts bill slashed
A property developer from Shropshire who put tenants' lives at risk with shoddy fire safety measures has had his legal costs bill cut after pleading poverty.
Robert Anthony Reilly, from Much Wenlock, was the developer and freeholder of two blocks of flats at Brookview Court in Borrowash, Derbyshire.
The businessman, of Copse Hill Lane, pleaded guilty to four breaches of fire safety regulations at Derby Crown Court.
He was handed a four-month suspended jail term in March and was ordered to pay £3,000 towards the Fire Service's costs of bringing the prosecution.
At London's Appeal Court, Lord Justice Irwin slashed the costs bill to £1,800 – after hearing that Reilly has fallen on hard times.
The judge, sitting with Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb and Judge Nicholas Dean, said Reilly had first been warned about shortcomings in fire safety measures in the blocks in 2007.
He told the fire service that "all necessary work had been carried out", but a further inspection soon afterwards "found it had not", the court heard.
The crown court judge, sentencing Reilly, described the fire safety breaches as "serious".
Reilly was lucky that there had not been a fire in which residents could have lost their lives, he said.
But Lord Justice Irwin today cut the costs order, in view of Reilly's financial dire straits.
"This appellant is now 65. At one time he was a reasonably successful property developer but, by the time of sentence, that no longer applied," the judge said.
He cut the costs bill to £1,800, to be paid off by instalments of £60 a month.
