Cameron House Hotel owners have been fined £500,000 over serious safety failings which led to a massive fire killing two guests.
The company was sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court this morning after pleading guilty to a string of breaches last week.
The blaze started after a night porter Christopher O'Malley put ash from an open fire in a plastic bag and then into a cupboard in the hotel foyer.
Sheriff William Gallacher ordered Cameron House Resort (Loch Lomond Limited) to pay a fine of £500,000.
He said the maximum fine for the offence wold have been £750,000 and this had been reduced by one third to take account of early plea.
Sheriff Gallacher told the court that while O'Malley's actions were difficult to understand "if a formal process had been in place the risk of individuals improvising would have been addressed".
Couple Simon Midgely, 32, and Richard Dyson, 38, died in the inferno at the luxury Loch Lomond resort on December 18, 2017 and over 200 guests were evacuated.
The court previously heard that management failed to action repeated warnings over the storing of combustibles in a cupboard where the fire started.
The latest warning was by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service just one month before the blaze.
Bosses had also been previously warned over a lack of training and safety procedures for emptying open fires as well as the maintenance of ash storage bins.
But staff continued to use make shift equipment - trays, boxes and ice buckets - to store the fireplace ash, with metal storage bins behind the hotel brimmed full.
It was a practice that saw 35-year-old night porter Christopher O’Malley, of Lennox Street in Renton, put fire remnants into a plastic bag and into a cupboard beside flammable kindling on the night of the fire.
Last Friday ay the company pled guilty to two charges of failing to take the necessary fire safety measures to ensure the safety of employees and guests.
These included having no safe procedures or equipment for removing ash from the open fires and disposing of it, no formal training for staff for removing ash from the fireplaces, and failing to keep cupboards containing potential ignition sources free of combustibles.
Defending Cameron House’s owners, Peter Gray QC said last week that the tragedy had “shook the organisation to its core”.
He said the failings were a result of “genuine errors and misinterpretation” by individuals, adding: “I am instructed to extend my deepest sympathies on behalf of the accused to the families of Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson for their tragic loss.”
O’Malley, who pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, was sentenced to 300 hours unpaid work. He will be placed under supervision for 18 months.
