A plumber has been fined for carrying out dangerous gas work at a property in Torquay.

Mark Evans, 52, of Sladnor Park Road, Torquay pleaded guilty to two breaches of gas safety regulations. He was sentenced to eight-months in prison suspended for two years, ordered to serve 100 hours of unpaid work and told to pay costs of £3,541.

The court heard how Mr Evans, an unregistered plumber, installed a gas boiler at a house on Denys Road after being recommended to the householders by a family friend.

However, the homeowner was concerned over the standard of his work and contacted another Gas Safe Register engineer to check on the installation.

Unbeknown to the homeowners, the engineer turned out to be the brother of Mark Evans, who is a properly registered gas engineer. He had concerns over the boiler installation and told the homeowners to contact Gas Safe Register.

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A Gas Safe Register Inspector classed the installation as 'At Risk' and an investigation was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The court heard Mr Evans had placed adverts in local Torbay publications saying that work would be undertaken by registered engineers but he in fact did the work himself, In addition, He left the boiler installed without commissioning it and left the homeowners with no paperwork and did not register the gas boiler with the Local Authority, all of which are legal requirements.

HSE Inspector Simon Jones said: "Mark Evans put lives at risk by undertaking gas work which he was neither qualified nor registered to undertake.

"He knew he should not have done the work but continued anyway blatantly disregarding the law, the law that is there to protect members of the public.

"After a gas boiler is installed it has to be immediately commissioned to ensure that it is working safely but Mark Evans made no such check and so left the homeowners with a potentially dangerous boiler for a considerable period of time with him knowing that the boiler had not been commissioned."

(LM/MH)