THE owner of Brandon Stadium, former home of the Coventry Bees speedway team, has been fined £10,000 after a district judge found the firm guilty of breaching a Community Protection Notice (CPN).
District Judge David Wain also ordered Jersey-based Brandon Estates Limited to pay Rugby Borough Council’s (RBC) £54,000 costs at the end of a three-day trial at Birmingham Magistrates Court.
Council officers served the CPN on the company in September 2017 after the stadium was broken into a number of times and became home to unauthorised traveller encampments.
The CPN required Brandon Estates to improve security and carry out regular inspections.
But the site was repeatedly broken into, with further traveller encampments and a number of fires.
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service witnessed people leaving buildings on the site and found evidence of people sleeping there.
Following advice from Warwickshire Police, the company carried out work in February 2018 to secure vehicle access points to the site, including digging ditches and erecting hoarding.
But in May 2018, council community wardens attended the stadium after a resident found evidence of people sleeping in buildings.
When Brandon Estates’ solicitor was informed, the solicitor replied in an email: “We, nor our client, need reminding of the requirements of the Community Protection Notice, as amended by agreement.”
The solicitor insisted inspections of the site had found no evidence of people sleeping rough and that buildings were secure.
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to further fires at stadium buildings in October 2018 and February 2019 – both started deliberately.
And video footage on YouTube showed people entering buildings on the site between February 2018 and February 2019 – with one stating he had been able to ‘just walk in’.
At the trial, Brandon Estates pleaded not guilty to two counts of breaching the CPN.
The court was told buildings on the site contained asbestos, which posed a significant risk to people accessing the site and, in the event of fire, the wider community.
The court also heard security at the site was a serious concern for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, which feared a major fire at the stadium and the risk to firefighters attending the site.
Giving evidence, security experts agreed the stadium site was difficult to secure, but CCTV cameras, security dogs and metal shutters were all cited as measures which could have helped keep buildings secure.
Delivering his guilty verdict, District Judge Wain accepted it was unreasonable to expect the company to install CCTV or pay for security dogs.
But he said the failure to secure main access points with metal shutters breached the CPN, which stated all buildings and structures on the site ‘must be suitably and sufficiently secured to resist attempts at access by unauthorised persons’.
The court was told the estimated cost of installing metal shutters was £15,000.
Brandon Estates was fined £5,000 for each breach of the CPN and was ordered to pay the council’s £54,000 costs and a £190 victim surcharge.
After the trial, RBC’s regulation and safety spokesman Coun Derek Poole said: “From the beginning, the council has sought to work positively with Brandon Estates to ensure the security of the site.
“Our sole motivation has always been to protect the public, both in terms of the safety of people trying to gain unauthorised access to the site and the safety of the wider Brandon community in the event of a major incident, such as a fire.
“While it has taken the council considerable time and resources to pursue this successful prosecution, both the verdict and the awarding of costs vindicate our determination to hold Brandon Estates accountable to the terms of the Community Protection Notice.”
