A former deputy council leader has pleaded guilty to ten charges over a property he let out.

Raymond Singleton-McGuire, 56, was deputy leader of Boston Borough Council in Lincolnshire.

He has been ordered to pay over £13,000, made up of £2,925 in fines, £10,000 in costs and a £90 victim surcharge.

Singleton-McGuire was charged in relation to an HMO in Boston.

He had pleaded not guilty to a total of 25 offences at a previous hearing at Boston Magistrates’ Court, and had been due to face a two-day trial.

However, this week in court he admitted ten of the charges and the others were dismissed.

Of the ten he admitted, four related to fire risk and two to not having an HMO licence.

The other four charges were for failing to comply with regulations in respect of managing a HMO. There were not enough fire doors, cookers were dangerously located, and windows were not guarded and were in a poor state of repair.

His defence said he had taken steps to comply with the regulations once the failings had been pointed out to him and claimed he was lied to by the tenants over the number of people living there, a point not accepted by the prosecution.

Singleton-McGuire was removed from his post as deputy leader and finance portfolio holder pending legal action and last month he resigned as a councillor.

The report in the Boston Standard is here