New Look will still have to pay £400,000 as fine after the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s decision of penalising the retailer for breach of fire safety regulations.
The London Fire brigade dragged New Look to court for the violation of safety norms after a fire broke out in its
Next Look should have immediately called up the fire brigade after the fire broke out; this it failed to do. Someone in the next building was the first to call the firemen but the store’s second floor was entirely engulfed by flames before the fire tenders arrived. While the store’s fire alarm went off, someone is said to have reset it at least once.
The fire brigade helped more than 450 people out of the New Look store and surrounding areas. Traffic and people were kept off large portions of the
New Look was asked to pay a fine of £400,000 and £136,052 in costs after the retailer admitted to violating the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the RRO). This is the heaviest monetary penalty ever imposed under the RRO.
The hearing of the plea petition saw New Look telling the Court of Appeal that the incident was not the result of individual or collective negligence of duty. The firm also argued that that no one had been injured or killed in the fire and that the sentencing judge had been too harsh with the retailer than he would have been for breach of responsibility towards employees and people visiting the store under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The Court of Appeal, however, upheld the lower court’s decision saying a judge need not necessarily wait for death or injury to pass a sentence for violation of duties under the Order.
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