Non-Gas Safe Registered Engineer Prosecuted | Health & Safety

Non-Gas Safe Registered Engineer Prosecuted

Key Facts: 

• A gas worker was prosecuted after undertaking gas work whilst not on the Gas Safe register.
• Registration with Gas Safe is a legal requirement before undertaking gas work.
• He received a four month prison sentence for the five charges (suspended for 12 months), 150 hours committee service, and ordered to pay costs of £6,296.35.

The Case: 

A building firm’s former owner was prosecuted after an HSE investigation established that he had carried out gas work without being Gas Safe registered.

The 44-year-old man had been on the Gas Safe Register from Oct 2009 – Oct 2010, but had failed to sustain this. He knew that registration was a legal requirement, yet undertook gas work anyway.

The HSE investigation found that he had carried out illegal gas work on two separate occasions at homes in the West Midlands.

The case was heard on 29 Apr 2015 at Stafford Crown Court, where the man pleaded guilty to five breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as an unregistered gas fitter – two counts of Regulation 3(1), two counts of Regulation 3(3) and single count of Regulation (3(2).

He received a four month prison sentence for the five charges (suspended for 12 months), 150 hours committee service, and ordered to pay costs of £6,296.35.

What the HSE Inspector had to say:

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector David Kivlin said:

“Those who undertake gas work must be on the Gas Safe Register, and anyone who works on gas appliances without being registered is working illegally.

“Mr Taylor had previously been a member of the Gas Safe Register but his membership had lapsed and he was no longer registered. This case highlights the need for householders to check the credentials of anyone working at their property.”

 What the law says: 

Regulation 3 (1) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 states:

“No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting unless he is competent to do so.”

Regulation 3 (2) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations1998 states:

“The employer of any person carrying out such work for that employer, every other employer and self-employed person who has control to any extent of such work and every employer and self-employed person who has required such work to be carried out at any place of work under his control shall ensure that paragraph (1) above is complied with in relation to such work.”

Regulation 3 (3) ofthe 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 for the purposes of this paragraph.”

Section 37 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (1974) states:

“Where an offence under any relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.”

Every Gas Safe registered engineer has an ID card which shows what type of work they are qualified to carry out. Find out more about Gas Safe here >>

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