British Olympics hopeful Izzy Taylor in court for fire breaches

Olympic-hopeful eventer Isabelle ‘Izzy’ Taylor, 40, had found herself in the dock at Oxford Crown Court after a series of fire safety breaches at her farm near Bicester.

Issues discovered after a fire in her tack room in 2020 included a dearth of working fire alarms and a set of fire escape stairs that was only loosely attached to the wall.

And when a fire officer revisited last December, he found that someone had been sleeping in staff accommodation above the tack room; in breach of a prohibition notice banning its use as living quarters.

Defending the sports star pro-bono, Caroline Goodwin KC said her client’s promising international career might be ‘shot to ribbons’ if she were given a prison sentence or suspended jail term, describing her as Oxford's 'golden girl'.

Judge Ian Pringle KC deferred sentence for six months to give Taylor a chance to make improvements at the farm and save up cash to pay the fire service’s costs.

He told her on Monday (July 3): “Yours is an exceptional case. You are an exceptional individual.

“And although at first glance when I looked at this case I felt that it was a very serious matter, and indeed it remains so, I think that because of a combination of circumstances if I was to defer this case for six months until Tuesday, January 2 of next year, it would give you an opportunity to demonstrate that you want to get things right.”

READ MORE: Profile of Oxfordshire's 'golden girl'

Prosecutor Lucy Conroy, for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, told the court that the breaches of fire safety rules were uncovered as a result of a blaze in the tack room at her stables at Aldershot Farm, Bucknell, on October 3, 2020. The fire was caused by a faulty electrical distribution board on the ground floor.

Officers tasked with investigating the fire found a number of issues. A gas cylinder was suspended from the ceiling with a wire. The tack room ceiling was a non-fire resistant plywood and in one place there was a hole, meaning the fire officers were able to see into one of the two staff flats on the first floor.

An external metal staircase, providing an emergency escape route for one of the flats, was not properly fixed to the wall and some of its steps were not level. There was a single, battery-operated fire alarm in the second flat and no other firefighting equipment in either flat.

Partitions between the two flats were made from plywood and internal doors were not fire resistant, the court heard.

Prosecuting, Ms Conroy said there had been a ‘significant risk of injury or death in the event of fire’.

The fire service issued a prohibition notice banning anyone from sleeping in the upstairs flats.

But when officers returned to the stables last December, two weeks after Taylor was before Oxford Magistrates’ Court to admit breaches of fire safety rules, an unmade bed pointed to the property being lived in.

“Ms Taylor was present and she was challenged about it [whether anyone was sleeping in the flat]. She replied: ‘No,’” Ms Conroy said.

“It was, I think, challenged further and then of course a guilty plea entered at Oxford Magistrates’ Court.”

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Taylor, of Bicester Road, Bucknell, pleaded guilty to three breaches of fire safety regulations, breaching a prohibition notice and failing to surrender at an earlier magistrates’ court hearing.

Mitigating, Ms Goodwin KC asked the judge to take an exceptional course and impose a conditional discharge. It would mean Taylor would only be punished for the offences if she got into further trouble.

The barrister said: “What we are asking this court to do is take an unusual step of preserving her international career because it will be shot to ribbons.”

She warned that ‘her whole career would be shot’ if she were given a suspended prison sentence that may prevent her from obtaining visas so she could compete abroad.

The pandemic, which saw the events from which Taylor earned her living halted, had affected the business; and the defendant herself had been struggling. It had had a ‘significant impact’, Ms Goodwin said – adding she was ‘not here to play the smallest violin in the world’.

Since pleading guilty, improvements had been made to the stables and Taylor herself had undertaken health and safety training.

If the judge was to cut her client in half, ‘running through’ Taylor he would find ‘determination, you would find tenacity and you, actually, would find integrity’, Ms Goodwin said.

Rather than sentence her on Monday, Judge Ian Pringle KC adjourned the sentencing until January 2 next year. It would give her six months to get the builders in to make the necessary improvements to the stable block and save money towards paying fines and costs, he said.