HSE warns Lancashire homeowners not to risk lives with illegal gas fitters following successful prosecution

Date:

9 July 2009

Release No:

HSE/NW/010/09

Homeowners in Lancashire are being warned they risk putting their lives in danger if they employ gas fitters who are not qualified.

The Health and Safety Executive has issued the warning after successfully prosecuting Peter Welke, who is also known as Peter McKay, for carrying out illegal gas-fitting work in Lytham St Annes. He pleaded guilty to two offences at Blackpool Magistrates Court on Wednesday 8 July 2009.

Peter Welke, formerly of Edelston Road in Blackpool, was charged with contravening Regulations 3(3) and 4 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 by carrying out gas-fitting work without being registered, and by subcontracting work to a gas fitter who was not registered. He was fined £700 and ordered to pay costs of £2,800.

HSE investigated after Peter Welke carried out work at two properties on Cheviot Avenue and East Cliffe in Lytham St Annes during June and July 2007.

HSE Inspector Ian Philips said:

"Peter Welke was putting lives at risk because he didn't have the training he needed to work with gas. Gas fitters must be registered by law and have the correct qualifications for the type of work they are doing.

"Every year, 20 people die in the UK from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gas appliances and flues that have not been properly installed. Qualified gas fitters know how to install boilers properly so that air circulates around them, preventing carbon monoxide from building up. People should therefore always check gas fitters' ID before allowing work to go ahead."

From 1 April this year, the Gas Safe Register replaced CORGI as the official gas safety registration scheme in Great Britain. All gas fitters need to be signed up to the new register. More information is available at www.gassaferegister.co.uk.

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 3 (3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 states: "no employer shall allow any of his employees to carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or service pipework and no self-employed person shall carry out any such work, unless the employer or self-employed person, as the case may be, is a member of a class of persons approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive."
2. Regulation 4 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 states: "Where an employer or a self-employed person requires any work in relation to a gas fitting to be carried out at any place of work under his control or where an employer or self-employed person has control to any extent of work in relation to a gas fitting, he shall take reasonable steps to ensure that the person undertaking that work is, or is employed by, a member of a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive."
3. Gas engineers undertaking gas work must be registered with a body approved by HSE. The body currently approved is the Gas Safe Register. For further information about the gas registration scheme go to www.gassaferegister.co.uk 

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Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News and Pr North West