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Fake Gas Safety engineer given suspended sentence
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
A rogue gas fitter has been given a suspended jail sentence after illegally installing a gas boiler in a privately rented property.
What’s more, Mr Christian Winter undertook landlord’s gas safety checks that he had no authority to carry out.
Unsurprisingly, the boiler installed by Winter was later found to be extremely dangerous.
Incompetent
Mr Winter, trading as CJS Winter Plumbing & Heating Services of Ashburton in Devon, installed the boiler at a property in Kingerkerswell.
He then proceeded to undertake landlord’s gas safety checks at the property, despite having no competency in gaswork, or being registered on the Gas Safe Register. Winter also conned the landlord of the property by using a fake Gas Safe Register registration number on all of the records he produced.
Exeter Crown Court heard that Mr Winter’s illegal gaswork became apparent when the boiler he installed was inspected by properly registered member of Gas Safe.
Fake Gas Safety engineer given suspended sentence
Faults
On inspection, the registered engineer found various faults with the installation and subsequently classed the equipment as dangerous.
Further investigation from the Health and Safety Executive revealed Winter had used fraudulent Gas Safe details to con the landlord. When the landlord was eventually informed of the problem, she challenged Winter but still, he continued to lie about his supposed qualifications.
Breaches
In court, Winter pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(3) and 3(7) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
As such, Mr Winter was given a suspended prison sentence of 12 months, ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and told to pay costs of £3,327.80.
