I read with disgust the story about the landlord falsifying gas certificates in last week’s Guardian.

The amount people were been fined is ridiculous and should have been 100 times the amount.

What's this about? Landlord of 30 properties in borough faked gas safety certificates

In the case of the gas engineer, a fine of £200 for each offence is laughable. He knew what he was doing and he knew it was illegal and he knew people's lives were at risk.

The landlord was fined £250 for each offence - probably not even a week’s rent for one of his properties. His licence for all of his properties should and must be withdrawn.

I know it’s not going to happen because rental housing is desperately needed, but in my opinion, this just goes to show the greed that some landlords have and the contempt they show to their tenants.

It’s about time we had a new law for bad landlords with much higher penalties and the courts being allowed to ban landlords for life.

Even better, ban private landlords and build millions of new council homes.

Paul Olford,

Leytonstone