Michael Trent Algar has been imprisoned for 14 months after installing a new boiler without being Gas Safe registered. He pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates’ Court to breaching three charges under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 after a HSE investigation.
Algar had been employed to install a new boiler in a domestic property. The homeowners ran a bath for their daughter and smelled gas. They contacted another gas engineer who carried out the repairs and found that the flue had not been replaced.
The flue that had been left had a gap which allowed products of combustion to enter into the property. He deemed this as immediately dangerous and it was reported to Gas Safe Register.
The court heard that Mr Algar was not Gas Safe registered and has never been registered. He had received advice from HSE on previous occasions in relation to similar matters.
Speaking after the hearing HSE inspector Lisa Bailey said: “The homeowners were very lucky in this case. Had they not acted as quickly as they did the consequences could have been devastating.
“Michael Algar carried out Gas work despite not being competent or Gas Safe registered. It is important that homeowners check the Gas Safe registration number of any engineers who attend their property. I hope this sentence sends a message to other unregistered Gas Installers.”
[…] The importance of checking that gas engineers are Gas Safe registered has been highlighted again by a case in which a self-employed gas fitter has been sent to prison. Read more – SHP Online […]
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Registration to Gas safe, Corgi, Niceic etc etc does not guarantee compliance and until registration does , British standards will continue to be nothing more than a tariff on building systems.
Rules change constantly, systems , guidance notes, No wonder the qualified and the compident are at loggerheads , we need facts that are true today and tomorrow and people who can say this is it . Full stop not some newby with a tick list who cannot or will not sign a job off . We have the courts but maybe a jury of plumbers , personally never meet a good one , but as an Electrican how could I see their worth .
New houses are built with various promises but there are plenty of people with stories that contradict the so called truth .