New research on cowboy gas fitters in Great Britain reveals that they are doing a quarter of a million gas jobs each year, including fitting and servicing appliances.

The study, carried out for Gas Safe Register, estimates that 7,500 hard core illegal gas fitters are doing these jobs without the skills or the qualifications to work on gas.

Gas Safe Register has classified this group as potentially the most dangerous type of illegal gas workers in the country.

For the first time, the research has allowed Gas Safe Register to develop an accurate profile of those most likely to be involved in illegal gas work.

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More than half (57%) are sole traders and a third (33%) work in companies employing fewer than four people.

As well as carrying out gas work, many also undertake plumbing jobs (90%), bathroom fitting (81%), kitchen fitting (67%), general building (43%) and electrical work (43%).

Gas Safe Register believes a higher percentage of illegal gas fitters advertise their services online and in local papers as few if any checks for registration are carried out. In contrast, directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson Local check for registration, so few illegal gas workers advertise their services.

Commenting on the research, Phill Brewster, Gas Safe Register's National Investigations Manager said: "Gas and cowboys do not mix, it's a fact. One in 10 of the illegal gas installations we investigated in the last nine months have been Immediately Dangerous and we had to disable the appliances straight away to make them safe. Over a third of these were leaking gas, and almost half had faults that could lead to lethal carbon monoxide exposure. So, with our research showing that illegal gas fitters do 250,000 jobs in our homes each year, it’s worrying to think how many of these were also left in a dangerous state."

(CD/GK)