The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted an unregistered gas fitter from Verwood for an illegal and dangerous boiler installation at a Bournemouth home.
Michael Smithers undertook the work in December 2011 after falsely claiming to be qualified to carry out work on gas appliances.

On 28 April Bournemouth Magistrates' Court heard that when tenants moved into the property in January 2012 they started to experience problems with the boiler. An engineer from the boiler manufacturer attended, identified a number of defects and put a warning notice on the boiler, instructing that it should not be used.

Mr Smithers later returned to rectify the defects, noted the warning notice, but disagreed with the boiler manufacturer's engineer and turned the boiler back on. Being concerned, the tenants contacted the letting agent and another engineer came to resolve the issues.

Then a Regional Investigations Officer from the Gas Safe Register identified a number of problems with the standard of the installation and condition of the boiler, including nine specifically relating to the work done by Mr Smithers.

Mr Smithers pleaded guilty to three separate breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. He was fined a total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £7,000 in costs.