A rogue landlord used an AI-generated image to trick council inspectors into believing he had installed a smoke detector in a rental property.

Bradford Magistrates’ Court heard Mindaugas Palaima had rented two properties - 18 Fairfax Avenue and 9 Norwood Street - and converted them into HMOs without the building owners’ permission, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He failed to apply for an HMO licence from Bradford Council before running the properties under the company name Instyle Aviation.

Imran Hussain, prosecuting, told the court that last May the council had received a complaint that 18 Fairfax Avenue was being used as an unauthorised five-bedroom HMO. He said: “The owner had leased the premises to the defendant who had gone on to sublet the premises to other individuals without telling the owner.”

Officers

Officers inspected the property and found that some rooms had no fire escape windows, fire doors or fire detection systems.

“This caused an imminent risk of serious harm,” said Hussain. “Due to this risk an emergency prohibition order was served ordering him to immediately install smoke alarms. The defendant agreed to do this that very day. He joked that he could just send the officer an AI-generated image. He later sent photos purporting to show a smoke detector where there was previously no smoke detector.

“He sent that image showing a smoke detector on the ceiling on 27th October at 10.30pm. The following day at 11:30am officers re-visited the property and saw there was no smoke detector on the ceiling – confirming their suspicion that this was an AI image.”

Charges

Other charges related to 9 Norwood Street, which had also been converted into a HMO without a licence. A number of fire safety issues were identified during an inspection, including a lack of smoke alarms. The house had been leased to Palaima, who leased it to tenants without the owner’s knowledge.

A follow-up inspection identified further defects. Improvement notices were served but there was no evidence they were complied with.

Palaima, 44, of Silver Royd Terrace, Wortley, Leeds, was found guilty in his absence of charges including running an HMO without a licence and failing to fit smoke alarms and was ordered to pay more than £11,218.

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