Checking your gas man's credentials
With an estimated 7,500 illegal gas fitters in the UK, rogue gas fitters never fail to make it on our Rogue Traders' radar. Around 20 people every year die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gas appliances and flues that have not been properly installed, maintained, or ventilated.
This year, a new scheme for Great Britain and the Isle of Man is aiming to reduce dangerous gas work and carbon monoxide incidents. Established in April 2009, the Gas Safe register has replaced Corgi as the official registration scheme for gas workers (Corgi is still the official registration scheme in Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands). So if you're not Gas Safe registered, you can't work with gas.
We investigated two illegal gas fitters, Brian Lloyd and John Carslake.
Brian Lloyd, from Ossett in Yorkshire, has had a chequered past. He has been suspended twice from the Corgi scheme once for dangerous gas work in 2005, and he's not Gas Safe registered.
John Carslake, from Chelmsford in Essex, has never been registered and in 2008 was served with a prohibition notice to cease gas work. But he's still trading, and has even cut and pasted Gas Safe Register promotional material in his adverts to imply that he's Gas Safe registered.
The problems with gas
But before we went to see if our rogues would break the law on camera, we wanted to find out just how easy it is to go wrong with gas. Matt and Dan went to visit Jamie Cooper, Gas Safe's technical support manager, to take part in a controlled experiment with an ordinary household boiler.
Jamie showed Matt and Dan how something as straightforward as the wrong number of turns on a screwdriver can cause the gas in the boiler not to burn properly. A quick demonstration showed that this simple error can create a dangerous amount of carbon monoxide, which can't be seen, smelt, or tasted.
If this was released into your home, Jamie told us, "It would be at a dangerously high level and it could kill you".
Matt then went to meet Anne Mitchell, a mother whose life has been devastated by a carbon monoxide leak caused by illegal gas work.
In 2005, Anne from Cwmbran in Wales decided to get a flueless gas fire installed into her home. She hired a gas fitter, from South Wales, who she believed would be fully qualified to do the job.
However, he wasn't qualified to do that type of work, and his faulty installation of the gas fire led to a carbon monoxide leak. It killed Anne's 14-year-old daughter, Alex.
According to Gas Safe, over half of the population said that they took it on trust that their gas engineer was properly registered.
Anne said, "It's only lately that I've been able to look at photos. It's so hard, you know, to think of what you once had. And because of somebody not being totally honest and truthful, they've taken your life away, as well as Alex's."
On the trail
The consequences of going wrong with gas are horrifying. Matt and Dan got on the road to confront our illegal gas installers to see what they had to say. Their first stop is Yorkshire, to get on the trail of Brian Lloyd.
Brian's not registered, and he shouldn't be working with gas. So we invited him to our Yorkshire home to see if he would service a gas fire with a back boiler.
Brian quickly got on with the job, and as soon as he removed the gas fire he had broken the law. Our householder asked Brian for his Gas Safe registration. He told her that he had left it in the shop. This was a lie, because he doesn't have one.
We couldn't let it go any further and Matt went to see what Brian had to say. Although at first he insisted that he was registered, he then said that he had got his "papers" at home. Brian's "papers" were his certificate of competency. However, having the certificate does not mean that you are Gas Safe registered.
Next Matt and Dan went to confront John Carslake in Essex. John has never been registered, but we know he's been working illegally. We asked him to do a service on a boiler and within moments of arriving he had not only broken the law, but he had also breached his prohibition notice putting himself at risk of a fine and/ or a prison sentence of up to two years.
John's response
When our actress asked him whether he was Gas Safe registered, he gave us someone else's registration number. This is also illegal. Matt stopped the service and when he questioned John, he said that he "had done the course, just got to finish of the exams".
But just doing the course doesn't make you Gas Safe registered. He went on to say that he wasn't illegal because every time he works on gas he is accompanied by a fully registered Gas Safe supervisor; but we know that's not true.
John also claimed he didn't know how Gas Safe promotional material got into his advert.
Brian's response
Brian Lloyd wrote us a letter and said he had worked in the gas industry for 40 years. He also stated that he had his certificate of competence to work with gas.
Brian is currently being investigated by the Gas Safe Register for two cases of unsafe gas work.
Both of the illegal gas workers did not seem to grasp the seriousness of their actions.
Since we filmed with John Carslake he has continued advertising in local Chelmsford publications as 'Aqua Plumbing' (not to be confused with any other companies of a similar name). Astonishingly, he has again falsely advertised himself as being Gas Safe registered.
What you can do
If you're concerned that you have had illegal gas work done, you can nominate your gas appliance to Gas Safe for inspection. And if you know of an illegal gas worker then you can also report them to directly to the Gas Safe Register through the website www.gassaferegister.co.uk or by phone 0800 408 5500.
Have you ever had problems with unregistered gas men? Do you know what to look for? Find out how to make sure your gas man is properly registered.
We're also keen to know what you think. Remember if you have any new stories you want us to investigate send us your story.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~53~RS~)
Comments
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My local council, [name removed], uses the company [name removed] to maintain the boilers and central heating in their properties. I have had a variety of gas engineers out to fix problems with my combi boiler over the last few years and when asking about their Corgi status, not one of the engineers was Corgi trained. In fact I was told that the only Corgi trained fitter was "someone in the office" just to get Corgi registration for the company! Any chance you could find out what's going on.
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Remind Matt that Wakefield's in West Yorkshire, not South Yorkshire :)
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I have concerns that you are confusing the gas fitting of all engineers who are not gas safe or corgi registered as rubbish or unsafe whilst promoting that carried out by certified people as 100% perfect! This is blatently not the case. I come from a family of engineers and DIY experts who over the years have mastered all the expertise necessary to deal with just about any eventuality in the home, be it electrical, electronic, plumbing, gas fitting, building or car maintenance or just about anything else you care to mention. However, having fitted our mothers new gas cooker and found it was faulty (all the gas fitting was secure and checked for leaks etc) we had to call in a third party to fix the unit under warenty. Just after he had left it was fortunate I was on my way there as my elderly mother rang in a panic to tell me she could smell gas. When I got there I discovered that the fixed pipework I had installed had been loosened no doubt to make my mother call the gas man back and where he would have obviously charged for the repair of the pipework. These [removed as breaks house rules], for that is undoubtably are are quite prepared to kill someone for the sake of a £100 callout to fix something they created.
We as a family do not under any circumstances allow any tradesmen into our homes as their reliability, trustworthyness and honestly is always in doubt. So I think you need to redress the balance by highlighting that there are many non qualified installers who do a damn good job, far better than those we are supposed to trust.
Regards
Dave
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Hi. As a registered Gassafe Engineer i was amazed by your episode of rogue traders tonight. Absolutely nothing happened to either of the illegal fitters. You may as well just tell people to go out and work illegally as these two were caught and got off scott free. Potential customers will think what use is gassafe if they do nothing who clearly broke the law.!!!!
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The common belief is nobody can work on gas appliances unless GAS SAFE registered, However a competent and experienced person can install or sevice their own gas appliances, cookers, cenral heating boilers, fires etc quite legally under The Gas safety And Installion Act
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I would like to point out that there are GAS SAFE WOMEN out there, not just men so please call us Engineers!!
Also all GAS Safe Engineers have 2 numbers on their cards, not just one. As well as the company number every operative/engineer must have their own unique number ensuring the public are doubly protected.
The reason people use illegal operatives is because they are cheaper....reason being they dont have to pay out for their exams every 5 years and yearly registrations. If everyone asked for cards, illegal traders wouldnt even get through the door so it is about time EVERYONE insisted on seeing the card before any work is carried out. No qualified person would refuse to show their card.
Consumers can easily protect themselves by a) insisting on seeing the card and b) ensuring the card is valid and c) ensuring all gas appliances are inspected and serviced regularly by a qualified engineer.
Finally, there are very effective battery operated carbon monoxide detectors readily available at most supermarkets and DIY stores which cost no more than £15. Please promote these further as an additional safety feature as there is no need for people to still be dying from carbon monoxide in the 21st century. Instead of buying that DVD how about buying a CO detector instead and protecting your loved ones.
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Please promote the fact battery operated carbon monoxide detectors are readily available for around £15. Not only can they protect your family at home, they are also easily portable so can be taken on holiday and used anywhere in the world. Such a simple device can make all the difference if people use them! Carbon Monoxide is the silent killer so get one and stay alive.
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Thank you Watchdog. I went to the funeral of a carbon monoxide victim over 10 years ago. People went to prison then and people still go to prison now but what will it take for this to stop? With the detectors available, people should not be dying and unskilled tradespeople should not be putting others at risk. I'm not saying that everyone who is not on the relevant safety register is not capable of safely working with appliances but given the consequences, is it really worth taking that risk?
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I belive that people sould not post comments on here about how a DIY'er is as good as a registered engineer. This is a totally untrue statement to make as what regulations would they know? what vital monthly gas regulation updates would they be aware of as these are only posted to registered engineers & not 'wanabes' or 'cowboys' or 'DIYers' these are the people bringing this industry down & until they have done a full apprenticeship & spent hrs studying regulations & procedures & working & breathing the industry they should not interfere in things they know little about as they could end up killing someone!!!!
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I agree with one of your writers that corgi do not take complaints seriously. I had the misfortune to have 2 unqualified gasfitters install a boiler at my home. I originally had a kitchen installed by [details removed by Moderator]and they stated that all their tradesmen were fully qualified the gas fitters installed my gas hob and provided me with a certificate. It turned out that they were using false credentials and stated that they were also members of snipf. It turns out that they were neither. boiler was installed and did not work from day one leaving me and my family cold and out of pocket. HSE of scotland wrote to them but nothing was done!! the flu for the boiler was just a hole and the wrong size of pipes were used. They were intimidating and threatening, I took them to the small claims court to recoup what I had to pay to get the boiler installed correctly and to date, 4 years on have not received a penny.
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Aqua Care, was your post directed at me? I am only quoting the law
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You Muppet's, Wakefield is a City with a Cathedral not a Town, check your geography, Wakefield is situated in Gods County of West Yorkshire, not South as your programme dictated. Up here a spade a shovel, say no more. Yorkshire rule OK. Clarkson for next PM.
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LaughingJackBill
If you have knowledge that these 2 have got off scot free, I suggest you write to your MP, Gas Safe Police and CPS to complain about injustice.
Hopefully this wasn't the case, overwise why bother having the Gas Safe Register, rules and police. I don't know how long ago the programme was filmed, or if the BBC provided the Police with evidence at the time. However, my understanding that the legal system is complex, and that it can take months and even years for things to get to through the legal system.
Maybe the BBC should keep us informed, although I doubt the Police and CPS would provide information about wether anything was done, is being done, or will be done about the rouge traders
Hopefully, even if nothing is done about the rogues, the programme has increased awareness of the importance of using Gas Safe Register engineers, because of the extra training, accoutability and inspections of their woek, and will make people ask to see ID cards, and check numbers on the Gas Safe Registers Website.
If this happens it might take work from the rogues and give it to the proffessionals, and force the rogues to find other work.
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