Builder David Lumley, of Marton, guilty of fire safety charges

Builder David John Lumley, 68, was warned he could be jailed when he returns to York Crown Court in September.

Boguslaw Szylak, 49, died when a fire broke out in a converted barn at Lumley’s home in Marton, near Kirkbymoorside, on July 16, 2017.

He was working for Lumley’s building firm DJ Lumley at the time and was staying in the barn.

At York Crown Court, Lumley pleaded guilty to two charges of putting people’s lives at risk by not taking general fire precautions at the building and not carrying out a fire safety risk assessment.

Both the charges relate to a garage or studio at the premises and cover the period between 2006 and July 2017.

He denied two other charges of breaching fire safety regulations also relating to the risk of death or serious injury. The North Yorkshire Fire Authority, which brought the prosecution, accepted his pleas.

His case was adjourned until September 27 while a psychiatrist and a probation officer prepare reports on him.

Judge Sean Morris granted him bail until then and warned him he could be jailed when he is sentenced.

Coroner Richard Watson heard at the inquest into the death that Lumley had been served with a council enforcement notice in 2009 forbidding anyone to live in the barn, as it did not have planning permission to be a dwelling, and that the building did not meet fire safety standards.

He said: “If there had been compliance with the planning enforcement notice then Mr Szylak would not have died” - but added that more relevant were the breaches of building regulations.

He said that the work converting the barn to living accommodation had been done “without regard to fire safety”.

He added: “If the proper measures for escape had been available in the building Mr Szylak would have survived. There was a lack of proper escape route. It seems clear the fire spread very rapidly.”

He heard that the window in the bedroom where Mr Szylak died was too small to act as an escape route.