Antony Clifton, a director of CS Appliance Repairs Limited, of Exige Way, Wymondham, was been jailed for 46 weeks in July 2025. He carried out unsafe gas work while falsely claiming to be a member of the Gas Safe Register. The work, at a home in Drayon, Norwich in January 2022, resulted in a gas escape on the inlet to a cooker that he had been fitted the day before.
There is a very basic lesson here for all our clients; it is necessary to complete a little bit of "due diligence" on our contractors. If a company engages a contractor, and the contractor has an incident that results in prosecution, there is a chance the client company could find themselves in the dock, too. Like it or not, that's the way the Health and Safety at Work Act operates.
So, a simple check is often all that is required; enginees should be able to demonstrate technical competence. Gas engineers; Gas Safe Register. Electrician; NICEIC or ECA. Fire and security; NSI, BAFE, etc. All these organisations have a simple way of checking that the engineer who claims to be a member, is indeed a member.
There is something in the image at the head of this article, that made me look twice at the report produced by the electrician, for a property in Lowestoft (leave your answers in a comment!). On checking his claimed registration with NAPIT, it turns out his registration had been revoked and his report somewhat fraudulent, and the electrical installation unsafe. He was duly reported to NAPIT.
We don't find too many of these, but we do. A responsible contractor won't mind us carrying out some simple due diligence on their technical competence, so we discuss this with all our clients. In a future artcile we'll discuss contractors' ability to work safely.