Landlord Admits Fire Offences

9 March 2012, 11:49 | Updated: 9 March 2012, 12:12

Eighteen months after a mum and her three-year-old daughter died in a fire at a house in Milton Keynes, their landlord's pleaded guilty to breaking fire safety regulations.

Bola Ejifunmilayo and her daughter Fiyin (pictured right) were both killed in the fire at 200 Fishermead Boulevard in Fishermead, which had been converted into bedsits.  Their bodies were not found until the following day because firefighters mistakenly thought everyone in the house had been accounted for.

The fire was started by Barbara Zhanje, who was in another part of the house.  She had started the fire to get back at an ex-boyfriend.  Bola and Fiyin were upstairs and couldn't escape the flames.  Zhanje was jailed for 12 years in March 2011.

Lookman Adeyemi, from Buckfast Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, appeared at Amersham Law Courts on Thursday 8 March 2012 and pleaded guilty to three counts of breaking fire safety regulations.

He admitted failing to make suitable assessment of the fire risk, failing to make sure people could get out quickly in the event of a fire, and for putting insufficient fire detectors and alarms inside the building.

Adeyemi is due to be sentenced at Amersham on Thursday 29 March 2012.

Group Manager Chris Bailey from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service said: “We are very pleased with today’s outcome. We look forward with interest to the judge’s sentencing remarks.

“The judge made it clear to the defendant that he could not rule out a custodial sentence.”