A landlord has been fined £30,000 after pleading guilty to 46 charges relating to four houses of multiple occupation.

Khalid Malik was also ordered to pay costs of £1,250 and a victim surcharge of £120.

Cambridge Magistrates’ Court was told that environmental health officers carried out inspections of the properties and found unsafe living conditions and evidence of poor management.

Of particular concern were fire safety, dangerous electrics and poor security.

Malik was prosecuted under the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006.

In an unrelated case, a landlord who left his tenants with no heating or hot water for four weeks during winter has paid a similar penalty.

Royston Cooper let out the property in Talgarth Road, Hammersmith, London, to five architectural students, despite it having a broken boiler and a leaking toilet.

After Cooper ignored requests to fix the boiler, the students complained to Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s private housing and health service.

Council officers recognised the tenants were at risk of immediate harm and arranged for a new boiler to be installed and the toilet to be fixed, while they took action against Cooper.

Cooper, 47, of Billingshurst, West Sussex, had not licensed the property as an HMO.

He failed to appear at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court and was found guilty of four offences under the Housing Act.

He was fined £15,000 for failing to license the house as an HMO, £5,000 for failing to maintain the boiler, a further £5,000 for not fixing a leaking soil pipe in the toilet, and another £3,000 for failing to respond to an investigator’s request for information.

He was also ordered to pay costs of £2,160 and a victim surcharge of £120. The tenants, who moved out in February, will now be able to apply to have some of their rent returned.