BBC Watchdog: Checking your gas man's credentials

[Tony]

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. Incredibly, an illegal gas fitter is 32 times more likely than a registered installer to cause a carbon monoxide related incident.

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.

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. This blog will close at midday on Friday. Remember if you have any new stories you want us to investigate send us your story.



Checking your gas man's credentials