A landlord has been fined £20,000 after six people had a lucky escape from a fire that destroyed two flats above a restaurant.

Hitesh Mashru, of Fairway, Northwood pleaded guilty to breaching four fire safety regulations after the blaze above the Thai Sunset, in Bushey High Street, on April 24.

An electrical fault  from a down lighter started the fire which ripped through the upstairs flats, leaving the building without a roof and taking 50 fire fighters more than 12 hours to put out.

The 49-year-old property developer admitted to endangering life by failing to ensure the safety of the electrical supply; failing to carry out a risk assessment; failing to ensure the property had appropriate fire fighting equipment, including a simple domestic smoke detector, and failing to fit fire doors and other safety equipment.

Watford Magistrates’ Court heard, on Monday, the precautions taken to comply with the regulations would have cost just a few thousand pounds.

Judith Gower, prosecuting on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council’s Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was only by chance that six people did not lose their lives in the raging fire that ripped through the roof of the flats.

The court heard that three of four people living in flat 39b returned at 3am after a night out and smelt burning.

They assumed it was coming from the Thai restaurant downstairs, which was unconnected to the prosecution, and went to bed.

Three hours later their lives were probably saved when one of them woke up and went to get a drink and go to the toilet.

Smelling smoke in the communal hallway around 6am the man went to investigate.

After opening a bathroom window to find smoke coming from the small pitched roof he raised the alarm and called the fire brigade, allowing the residents of both flats to escape unharmed.

Mrs Gower said: “Mr Mashru endangered the lives of six people.

“It was only by luck that one of the occupants woke up and got the others to safety.

“If not, the tenants would have died or been seriously injured.”

She added: “It was a very serious fire. The defendant fell well short of the appropriate standards and placed people at risk of death or serious injury.”

Solicitor advocate Gary Edel representing Mashru said his client was “most deeply remorseful”.

Magistrates were told he had been “robbing Peter to pay Paul” with different credit cards to remain living in his £700,000 house and send his two children to private school.

Mashru and his wife, who was in court to support him, had £66,000 in credit card debt and would soon have to sell the family home, the bench was told.

In order to pay the fine they would have to borrow from friends and family.

Chairman of the bench Michelle Reeves ordered Mashru to pay a £5,000 fine for each of the four breaches and £7,394.58 in prosecution costs.

Mrs Reeves said: “From your own admission you have been in the building trade as a project manager seven to 10 years.

“You have deliberately chosen to ignore the requirements and were motivated by financial gain above the safety of residents.”