A domestic gas engineer has been sentenced to 90 hours community payback after he was found guilty of carrying out work on commercial catering premises that he was not competent to do, the Health and Safety Executive has said.

James Richard Harvey Skinner, 43 and from Aberdeenshire, was employed by a gas firm, but unknown to them, Mr Skinner carried out private gas fitting work in commercial takeaways and restaurants as an unregistered gas engineer. In 2010, he undertook gas safety inspection and installation work at Indian takeaways in Stonehaven and Portlethen.

He was said to have issued Gas Safety records on the wrong forms using a Gas Safe registration number that he fraudulently claimed was his own, which turned out to belong to a former employer, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.

Mr Skinner's activities were investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after complaints were made by Gas Safe Register and Aberdeenshire Council. It is understood a Gas Safe engineer visited two takeaways and found a number of safety issues that a gas engineer with catering competence should have identified, such as an open-ended gas pipe that was left uncapped. HSE said this could have caused a significant build-up of gas and a subsequent explosion had the isolation valve been turned by mistake and the gas ignited. An immediate Prohibition Notice was issued halting use of the relevant gas appliances at the sites until they were made safe.

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The court heard also heard that while Mr Skinner did not necessarily create the risks in the premises, he failed to ensure that they were identified and remedied. A similar investigation at another takeaway found incorrect fitting of a tandoori oven and no 'interlocking' of the extraction system, meaning gas could have been turned on without the extractor operating, which could have led to a build-up of Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide levels, putting workers at risk of poisoning. Once again an immediate Prohibition Notice was served on the premises.

When Mr Skinner was first interviewed, the court was told that he suggested he had been impersonated. He later accepted that he had carried out work at the premises.

He was sentenced to a 90-hour community payback order, a direct alternative to a custodial sentence, after pleading guilty to four breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and also to a breach of Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

(JP/IT)