A company director from Dudley has been sentenced for carrying out illegal gas work on a property in Kingswinford, putting the lives of the owners at risk.
Ross Kitson, a director of Kitsongas Limited, was prosecuted after an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found he had carried out work on gas appliances in the property in Manor Park, when neither himself, nor his company, were registered as Gas Safe.
Dudley Magistrates’ Court heard that after the homeowner alerted HSE, inspectors also found that Mr Kitson had issued Gas Safe certificates in the name of another company that was properly registered.
The court was also told Mr Kitson’s company had since ceased trading.
Mr Kitson, 29, was fined £1,200 and ordered to pay costs of £858 and a £120 victim surcharge after he admitted breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 between December, 2013, and September, 2014.
HSE inspector, Paul Cooper, said: “The purpose of the Gas Safe Register is to protect the public from gas work being carried out by people who have not been trained and are not competent.
“Mr Kitson, and his company, were not registered by Gas Safe Register, and by carrying out this work, his actions endangered members of the public, putting them at serious risk of injury and even potentially death.”