A self-employed handyman has been sentenced after carrying out illegal gas work on a property in Birmingham after he falsely claimed to be on the Gas Safe Register. The work resulted in several defects, including a gas leak, which inspectors from Gas Safe Register branded an ‘immediate danger to life’.
In November 2023 Jaroslaw Mazan was hired to carry out the work by the landlords of the property. The tenant witnessed him undertaking gas work and specifically installing the boiler, and realised that Mazan had lied about being registered with Gas Safe when they could find no evidence of this on the Gas Safe Register website.
An inspector from Gas Safe Register attended the property in December 2023 to carry out an inspection of the gas work, finding an immediately dangerous gas leak on the pipework to the boiler and several other, possibly dangerous defects.
This prompted an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), which found that Jaroslaw Mazan carried out gas work without being competent to do so and without being registered on the Gas Safe Register.
While in this case nobody was injured, carrying out gas work without registration is illegal and potentially extremely dangerous. Unqualified work can lead to gas leaks, fires, explosions, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
At Dudley Magistrates’ Court on Friday 12 June, Jaroslaw Mazan pleaded guilty to breaching Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, Regulation 3(3), Mr Mazan received a 26-week suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £500 in compensation to the tenant of the property. HSE does not determine sentences, which are set by the Court.
HSE Inspector Harry Shaw said:
“This dangerous boiler fitting was a disaster waiting to happen, and the resultant gas leak could easily have caused a lethal explosion.
“The tenant did the right thing – and quite possibly saved themselves from serious harm – by checking the Gas Safe register and alerting inspectors when they realised Jaroslaw Mazan was unregistered.
“My message to anyone getting gas work carried out is simple; always use a Gas Safe-registered engineer, and if you aren’t sure of someone’s credentials, it only takes two minutes to check.”
The HSE prosecution was brought by enforcement lawyer Matthew Reynolds and paralegal officer Stephen Grabe.
Image credit: HSE
