A major pub chain has been fined £300,000 after a Merseyside landlord died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and tenants at another 474 pubs were put at risk. Paul Lee was found unconscious by a cleaner at the Aintree Hotel on Aintree Road in Bootle just after midday on 12 November 2007. He had turned on a gas fire in his living room ten hours earlier before falling asleep.

The HSE is warning landlords about potentially unsafe gas installations in tenanted properties. This warning follows the prosecution of Shahid Hussain, who manages a family business that owns and rents out a number of properties in Burton-on-Trent. The HSE started an investigation into the management of gas appliances in those rented properties after a single man, who lived alone, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in his rented flat in Waterloo Street, in February 2006.