A Devon man has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out community work after forging the details of a Gas Safe registered engineer and carrying out illegal gas safety checks.
Adrian Hunt ran a property maintenance business and carried out the compulsory annual safety checks on rented domestic properties in Dawlish, where he lives, on behalf of landlords and managing agents despite not being on the Gas Safe Register.
In a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), on 19 September Newton Abbot Magistrates heard that Mr Hunt's services were used by a number of managing agents in South Devon.
He offered to organise the safety checks and often used a registered Gas Safe engineer, but on at least three occasions, at properties in Brook Street and Brookdale Terrace, Dawlish, he did the checks himself and filled out the gas safety record using the details of a real Gas Safe registered engineer. Mr Hunt failed to check the supply of combustion air after working on gas appliances.
The issue came to light when the registered gas engineer went to a property and saw his details had been filled out on the record with someone else's handwriting.
Mr Hunt was found guilty of breaching Regulations 3(3), 3(7) and 26(9)(b), of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. He was sentenced to 120 days in prison, suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work. He was also ordered to pay costs of £5,000.
