A plumber from Milton Keynes has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for putting householders at risk over many years by repeatedly carrying out gas fitting work despite being unqualified and unregistered.
Andrew Barnes, trading as APB Home Services, was found to have undertaken gas fitting work dating back to 2006. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that he deliberately and consistently pretended to be officially registered with Gas Safe and its predecessor, CORGI.
Mr Barnes ignored three warning letters from HSE and continued to advertise himself as a competent, registered gas engineer and to undertake illegal work on gas fittings and appliances in homes in the Milton Keynes area.
On 1 November Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court heard that Mr Barnes, a plumber for over 30 years, had never been trained to work with gas and neither he nor his company had ever been on official gas safety registers.
Despite that, the CORGI and Gas Safe logos appeared on his paperwork and on his website, and he regularly issued landlord gas safety records for the work he had completed.
He was given a three year conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs of £600 after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. APB Home Services was fined £300 and ordered to pay costs of £525 for a single breach of the same Regulations.
