Landlord fined for false gas safety certificate

A Gas safety engineer Muhammad Waseem was found guilty of falsifying a number of Gas certificates. Thames Magistrates Court and Snaresbrook Crown Court have heard that landlord Tariq Hussain, of Walthamstow, induced engineer Muhammad Waseem, of Manor Park, to falsify four gas safety certificates for four rental flats in a property in Chingford.

Waseem pleaded guilty to four charges under the Fraud Act at Thames Magistrates Court. He was fined £200 for each offence, plus £200 costs and a £30 victim surcharge. Waseem will be removed from the register of certified Gas Safe engineers.

Hussain pleaded guilty to four charges under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act at Snaresbrook Crown Court. He was fined £250 for each offence plus costs of £500 and £100 victim surcharge. The case follows on from the prosecution of Tariq Hussain's wife, Nasim Hussain, who pleaded guilty in May to four offences under the Housing Act 2004 for supplying false or misleading information after she stated that the four flats did not have any gas appliances.

She was fined £40,000, plus costs of £1,839.64

Whilst sentencing Nasim Hussain, the judge commented that: "You were motivated by greed and used blatant dishonesty. You are a woman of great experience in property management; it was your company, and your responsibility. You and your husband made huge amounts of money out of this - the government and people in general rightly take a very dim view of such offending." The couple own approximately 30 addresses in Waltham Forest.

Following these convictions, existing property licences will be reviewed.