Published: 26 January 2012
by DAVID St GEORGE

MORE than four years after tenants on a Camden estate were exposed to carbon monoxide fumes jurors at the Old Bailey will be asked to review the details of the case.

Seven residents from two families at Exonbury, a block of flats in Abbey Road, West Hampstead, breathed in the potentially lethal gas.

They all needed hos­pital checks not long after work was carried out on the chimneys and flues, a senior judge heard last Thursday.

The claim was made by barrister Claire Harden, appearing for the Health and Safety Executive.

Apollo Property Services, through its defence counsel, John Williams, entered a “not guilty” plea to a single count of failure to discharge a duty of care regarding improvement works carried out at Exonbury between February 18  and March 18 in 2008.

The allegation relates to roof work when, it is alleged, flues were covered over – with the blockage leading to four members of one ground-floor family being overcome by gases and three members of a flat above them also suffering the effects of inhalation.

Judge Brian Barker, the Common Serjeant of London, fixed a trial date of June 11 with the case expected to last eight days.

Experts for both the prosecution and defence will be called to give evidence.

The judge heard that there were “concerns” about the length of time the case had taken before arriving at the Old Bailey and that further material would soon be served by the prosecution, with a response expected from the defence by the middle of April.

Judge Barker fixed a case review hearing for May 11.