Magistrates have ordered a hotel manager to pay fines and costs totalling £5,355 after a detection and alarm system failed to activate in a fire.

Nine residents were staying at the Plume of Feathers at Harley, near Shrewsbury, in the early hours of July 27 last year when the wife of the hotel manager opened the bedroom door to find smoke in the corridor, according to Shropshire Fire and Rescue.

She tried to raise the alarm by activating manual call points but the alarm failed to activate. Her husband and other members of staff had to knock on bedroom doors to wake guests.

Area manager John Das-Gupta said that although the premises were fitted with a full automatic fire detection and alarm system, it had not been adequately tested by the manager and the alarm failed to operate and raise the sleeping occupants.

Michael Martin pleaded guilty to one offence under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court on 17 September.