The importance of making sure that workers are fully qualified to carry out gas installations has been highlighted to plumbers liability insurance workers again.
It comes as Ryan Thorpe, 24, from Pontefract, faces eight months imprisonment – suspended for two years – after pleading guilty to eight separate breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. He was also ordered to pay £500 in costs.
Pontefract Magistrates Court heard how an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into work carried out at two addresses in Goole found that Mr Thorpe had illegally removed and fitted a new boiler, despite not being Gas Safe registered.
At one of the premises, he failed to seal the joint on a pipe from the gas meter correctly, causing a leak which was so serious that the supply had to be cut off.
Andrew Denison, HSE inspector, said: "Mr Thorpe blatantly disregarded the law by carrying out work without a valid Gas Safe registration and the appropriate competencies."
Earlier this year, Brian Lloyd was handed a suspended sentence for carrying out illegal gas work at three homes in Osset and Wakefield in May and June 2009.