A LANDLORD has been fined over £7,000 for operating an unlicensed house that was home to three disabled people.

Oxford City Council found William Stephen Rielly, of Rochfords Gardens, Slough, was operating the house in multiple occupation (HMO) illegally.

The house, in Nowell Road in Rose Hill, had no smoke alarms or kitchen fire door and seven other defects when a team of the council's environmental health officers visited in September 2016.

They classed it as a high-risk unlicensed HMO.

The council recovered housing benefit Rielly had received while managing the HMO on behalf of the three tenants. That totalled £5,798.

That was made after a successful claim to the First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber (Residential Property).

He was also fined £1,500 at Oxford Magistrates' Court on April 4 after he admitted managing an unlicensed HMO and failing in his duty to comply with two fire safety measures. Rielly was also ordered to pay council costs of £1,000.

In the two cases, he was fined a total of £7,298.

From 2015 a change to the law meant landlords were required to have at least one smoke alarm installed on every storey of their properties.