A Staffordshire gas fitter has been given 240 hours of unpaid work for failing to identify defects on a boiler that left a young family with carbon monoxide poisoning, just a day after they took their newborn baby home.
On 4 February Stafford Magistrates’ Court heard that the family and their two-year-old daughter had been suffering with headaches and dizziness over a number of weeks in May 2013.
They had begun to notice a pattern and, on 24 May, when their newborn daughter was just two days old, their older daughter started vomiting. Suspecting they were experiencing symptoms of the deadly gas, they went out and bought a carbon monoxide detector. Within an hour of putting in the batteries, it activated so the family went to hospital where they were found to have elevated levels of carbon monoxide in their blood.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that registered gas engineer Mark Adam Whitfield had carried out a landlord’s gas safety certificate examination at the house in Mesnes Green, Lichfield, when it was unoccupied on 26 November 2012. However, he failed to spot evident defects with the boiler and flue.
Mr Whitfield returned to the property several times the following April and May once the house had been let, but repeatedly failed to spot the problems.
The first bend in the flue was on top of the boiler when it should be more than 500mm above the top of the boiler. Also, the end of the flue was not correct and there were signs of condensation and staining inside the boiler, which were likely to have been visible when the gas safety check was conducted in November 2012.
Mr Whitfield pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was handed a 12-month community service order with 240 hours’ unpaid work. He was ordered to pay full prosecution costs of £1,185 and to pay £1,000 compensation to the affected family.