Illegal gas fitter fined after elderly couple poisoned by carbon monoxide

Date:

18 June 2010

Release No:

COILDN/1806

A workman whose illegal gas fitting work led to an elderly Edgware couple being poisoned by carbon monoxide in their home, has been fined £500.

The Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Dermot Healy, trading as D Healy Plumbing and Heating, of Ashfield Avenue, Bushey, Hertfordshire, for not being registered while carrying out gas work and for not holding Competence Certificates, needed for certain types of gas work.

Mr Healy pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998 at two separate addresses. He was also prosecuted under Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,500 at the City of London Magistrates' Court.

The court heard that on the morning of 20 November 2007, an elderly couple were at home in Penshurst Gardens, Edgware, Harrow when the wife, feeling lightheaded, lasped into unconsiousness on the sofa. Her husband also suffered dizziness and nausea before partially collapsing.

The couple managed to alert a relative who called ambulance which took them to Barnet General Hospital where they were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Their home had a gas-fired Lennox warm-air unit which had been in operation since 1961, despite it being reportedly condemed by gas engineers 12-14 years before the incident, but without the gas supply to the house being shut off.

Mr Healy, a gas-installer by trade, was asked to re-comission the unit and undertake annual service checks. The door to the boiler cupboard door was replaced by contractors, five years before the incident, and did not have any air-vents. Shortly afterwards Mr Healy installed a plastic vent cover.

14 days prior to the incident, on 6 November 2007, Mr Healy serviced the unit and no recommendations were made.

Following the incident, a British Gas investigation showed that the air unit cupboard had insufficient ventilation, and the flue was also of an insuffient length with two 90 degree bends, restricting the escape of exhaust gases to the outside. Negative pressure inside the cupboard resulted in gases being drawn down into ducts in the unit.

HSE inquires found that Mr Healy serviced the boiler of another relative of the elderly couple, in Canons Drive, Harrow. This boiler was installed in 2002 and no difficulties were experienced after Mr Healy had serviced it in June 2006. On this occasion, Mr Healy serviced the boiler while not being CORGI registered.

Further enquiries found that Mr Healy had held a CORGI registration from February 2001, but did not renew it when it expired in March 2005. Mr Healy had never received refresher training nor held the required Competence Certificate to carry out work on these units. By working without the necessary registration, safety checks and documentation, he clearly exposed clients to a serious health and safety risk.

HSE Inspector, Charles Linfoot, said: "The couple in this instance were lucky, but the outcome could so easily have been a tragic one."Mr Healy was paid by his clients to carry out an annual servicing of an old, deteriorating boiler only 14 days before they were taken to hospital with acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

"This work was fairly minimal, and was done on an informal basis. However, he acted illegally in that he was an un-registered gas engineer and carrying out work he was not qualified to do."

Check the engineer's Gas Safe Register ID card before letting them work on gas. If in any doubt go to www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk or call 0800 508 5500 for advice or to check if the engineer is registered."

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. Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
4. Gas Safe Register is the government approved registration scheme for gas engineers in the UK, Isle of Man and Guernsey. The register of 126,000 gas engineers, aims to protect 21 million gas consumers from dangerous gas work. It is a legal requirement for any gas engineering business or self employed gas engineer carrying out domestic or commercial gas work to be registered under the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998.
5. Gas Safe Register assesses the competence of engineers on the register by inspecting a sample of the gas work they carry out to make sure they are safe to work on gas. Gas Safe Register is focused on gas safety and campaigns to raise awareness of gas safety risks, including those associated with using illegal gas workers.

Press enquiries

Regional reporters should call the appropriate Regional News Network press office.

Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR (London & South East)