Wembley builder exposed customers to carbon monoxide

Date:

10 August 2010

Release No:

COISE/1007

A building company and one of its directors from Wembley have today been fined a total of £15,000 after leaving two customers at risk of death or serious illness from exposure to carbon monoxide fumes.

Between 3 September and 8 December 2009, Rushi Construction (UK) Limited, owned by Vikas Patel, was building an extension to a home in Westwood Drive, Little Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire.

Part of the extension was built around the flue outlet of a gas boiler, but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed that no Gas Safe registered engineer had been involved in the gas fitting work. Mr Patel had tried to use a sewage pipe and a washing machine vent hose, to extend the flue outlet across the new room and out a window - without success. This meant that harmful carbon monoxide gases were being released in the house, exposing the homeowners to potentially deadly fumes.

Mr Patel was asked to leave the job by the customers in December 2009 and after complaints to National Grid, the supply of gas to the property was disconnected in January 2010.

Following sentencing, HSE Inspector Stephen Manley said:

"Everybody involved in construction work, from small jobs such as fitting a conservatory, to larger extension builds, must think about the effect it may have on the safe operation of existing services such as gas appliances and flues.

"If you're in any doubt as to the effect of your work on existing gas systems then you are probably in the wrong business - but at the very least you should take advice from an engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register.

"Mr Patel's clients could have died because of the unsafe situation he created in their home. HSE will always take action when we see examples of such blatant disregard or ignorance, of regulations, guidance, and common sense."

Rushi Construction (UK) Ltd based at Braemar Avenue, Wembley, Brent, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulations 4 and 8(1) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. At Aylesbury Magistrates' Court today, the company was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,000.

Vikas Patel, of Braemar Avenue, Wembley, Brent, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and regulations 4 and 8(1) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Today he was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £731.

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."
3. Regulation 8(1) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 states: "No person shall make any alteration to premises in which a gas fitting or a gas storage vessel is fitted if that alteration would adversely affect the safety of the fitting or vessel in such a manner that, if the fitting or vessel had been installed after the alteration, there would have been a contravention of, or failure to comply with, these regulations."
4. Regulation 4 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 states: "Where an employer or 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."
5. Frequently answered questions by landlords on the subject of gas safety can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqlandlord.htm
6. Gas installers undertaking gas installation and maintenance work must be registered with a body approved by HSE. Gas Safe Register is the title of the new gas installer registration scheme in Great Britain from April 2009 (replacing CORGI). For further information about the new gas registration scheme see http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk

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