Lancaster death trap takeaway owner avoids jail after making improvements

Serkan Bingol’s sentence had been deferred by a judge until now to allow fire bosses to monitor improvements at his premises, the Mama Mia outlet in Lancaster.

He had been ordered to tackle a list of 16 safety improvements over fire safety flouts which he previously admitted.

Judge Philip Parry imposed 20 months in prison to mark the seriousness of the offences, but suspended the term for two years.

However, he ruled Bingol, 39, of Coniston Road, Lancaster, must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

He must also pay his £10,000 court costs within the next 12 months.

Preston Crown Court previously heard the takeaway was given a prohibition three years ago due to having no working fire alarm, no fire separation separating all three floors of the building, beds that were deemed “combustible material” on the fire escape routes and no fire risk assessment in place.

At that time Mr Bingol was interviewed under caution and agreed to remove the beds, and no further action was taken.

However, the premises was visited again in 2017 as part of a multi-agency inspection.

Beds were found again upstairs and none of the fire safety measures were put into place.

In addition a number of gas leaks were found in the shop, increasing the chances of a fire, and four people were found on the premises.

Bingol was again cautioned and interviewed and claimed he had no knowledge of the beds upstairs.

During a third visit in November the beds had not been removed, but he had installed a couple of battery operated detectors.

He admitted eight offences.