The landlord of flats where Angus jockey Jan Wilson died has been jailed for 12 months for fire safety breaches.
A judge criticised Alan Foster over his “complete disregard” for the safety of residents, including teenager Jan and Irish apprentice Jamie Kyne who were victims of an arson attack in September 2009.
Reacting to Friday’s sentencing, Jan’s mother, Margaret, said her daughter’s life had been lost by the accused’s lack of “basic housekeeping” at the North Yorkshire block.
Foster, 65, of Buckrose Court, Malton, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court by Judge Geoffrey Marson QC for offences which also continued at his other premises after the fatal fire.
He said it was impossible to say what would have been the outcome for the two jockeys had proper fire precautions been taken.
“It is clear, however, that their deaths would have been significantly less likely but for these breaches,” added the judge.
Miss Wilson, 19, of Greenhead Farm, Rescobie, near Forfar, and 18-year-old Mr Kyne were trapped in a second-floor flat when former caretaker Peter Brown started a blaze in rubbish stored beneath a stairwell after being refused entry to a party in another flat.
Brown was later convicted and jailed for the double manslaughter but the judge said Foster’s culpability was high.
Furniture and tins of paint were among rubbish a resident had previously complained of.
Inspections revealed a lack of fire safety equipment or signs.
“These were simple matters which should easily have been identified and obviated as part of a routine risk assessment and they could have been rectified without a good deal of expenditure,” the judge said.
He told Foster: “It is perfectly clear to me that despite all that happened in 2009 and despite being interviewed in 2010, you were unwilling to ensure the safety of residents.
“This was in part, no doubt, because you were unwilling to bear the relatively modest expense.”
Philip Standfast, for Foster, said he had never intended to become a landlord and planned to sell all the flats, but the property crash in 2008 meant that did not happen.
He found himself having to rent out the properties and realised he should have sought further advice about any changes that might involve.
He was not an absentee landlord since he was living in an adjacent property.
He was financially ruined, now more than £1 million in debt on the properties and on paper “bankrupt.”
After the case, Mrs Wilson said: “It was basic housekeeping, it doesn’t take much just to tidy up a stairwell. Two lives are lost and we have to live with that, nothing can bring them back.”
Jamie Kyne’s mother Madeline Cosgrove-Kyne said they were happy with the sentence.