A ROGUE landlord was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday for lying at a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of two students in a fire at one of his rented flats.

Harpal ''Harry'' Singh, 48, repeatedly told a fatal accident inquiry that James Fraser and Daniel Heron, two 20-year-old students, had a working smoke alarm when they moved into his flat in the west end of Glasgow.

However, fire investigators reported that was not the case.

They were supported by Lucy Fraser, James's mother, of Balmaha, Stirlingshire, who told the inquiry in September 2000 that her son died only hours after he phoned to ask her to bring smoke alarms to the basement flat.

Sheriff Kenneth Maciver, sentencing Singh yesterday, said his lies had unnecessarily drawn out the suffering of the families of the former school friends.

Sandy Fraser, James's father, yesterday said his family were reasonably satisfied with the sentence although it did not help their ''deep grief''.

He said he still believed the sentence could have been more severe and expressed concern that legislation introduced by the Scottish Executive in the wake of their deaths might not be sufficient to prevent such a tragedy happening again.

On the night they died the students invited friends to the bedsit in Melrose Street, Woodlands, which had metal bars attached to its windows, to watch a Manchester United football match on television.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Singh, a father of two, committed perjury, claiming that the flat had a working smoke alarm when the two students moved in in February 1999.

He also withheld the dead students' (pounds) 450 deposit for 18 months after the fire, which happened the following month.

He was found guilty of perjury earlier this month after a five-day trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court when a jury returned a unanimous verdict 15 minutes after Sheriff Maciver's closing speech.

Singh, of Newlands, Glasgow, who claimed to make only (pounds) 30,000 rental income a year from his numerous properties in Glasgow's west end, had hired Peter Gray QC, one of Scotland's leading criminal lawyers, to represent him.

Sheriff Maciver told Singh yesterday that he had been warned repeatedly by both the sheriff and the fiscal about lying at the inquiry.

He said it must have ''run into double figures'' the number of times Singh repeated the lie that the flat occupied by the students had a working smoke alarm.

Sheriff Maciver added that Singh's denials of the truth had ''protracted the suffering of the families'' of the dead boys, who were entitled to get answers about their deaths to ''alleviate some of their grief''.

Following the sentence Singh smiled at a dozen of his relatives sitting in the public benches of the court as he was led away to the cells.

James Fraser's 47-year-old father said after the verdict: ''We are reasonably pleased with Singh's sentence although we still believe it could have been more severe given the living hell he has put our families through.

''We would like to think there is a higher awareness now among families thinking of arranging accommodation for their student sons and daughters.''