Ben Craig Siddle, buying and selling as BCS Fuel & Plumbing, labored on quite a few houses in Hampshire in 2021 and 2022.

Siddle, 24, falsely represented himself as a Fuel Secure registered engineer to prospects and thus certified to work on fuel home equipment. However he was not, and the work he did fell under applicable requirements, leaving residents in danger from unsafe fuel home equipment.

He left two of the properties he labored on in an unsafe situation. Fuel Secure registered engineers had been later required to appropriate and restore Siddle’s installations.

At one property in Portsmouth, the boiler and flue that Siddle put in had been deemed instantly harmful. A boiler that Siddle put in at one other property in Portsmouth, was classed as in danger. Having been prohibited from additional fuel becoming work by the Well being & Security Govt (HSE) in July 2021, Siddle dedicated additional fuel set up offences between March 2022 to August 2022 at a home in Waterlooville.

Ben Craig Siddle of Waterlooville pleaded responsible to 5 breaches of Laws 3(7) and three(3) and 5(3) of the Fuel Security (Set up and Use) Laws 2005 and two breaches of Part 33(1)(g) of the Well being and Security at Work and many others. Act 1974. He was handed a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, ordered to finish 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £5,000 in prices at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court docket on 18th July 2023.

HSE enforcement lawyer Jon Mack stated: “Mr Siddle was a convicted fraudster and rogue fuel fitter who had dishonestly and deliberately breached the legislation with no regard for the protection of his prospects or their households. When challenged by considered one of his prospects, a childminder, Mr Siddle had proven her a photoshopped Fuel Secure Register entry which he had stolen from an unconnected firm, BCS Plumbing & Heating. He repeatedly lied in WhatsApp messages to a different buyer.

“Fuel work ought to solely be undertaken by somebody who’s competent and certified to take action, and meaning they should be on the Fuel Secure Register. Each engineer has a novel ID card exhibiting the work they’re certified to undertake, and the general public are inspired to contact Fuel Secure Register to examine the particular person enterprise their fuel work or if they’ve any issues relating to fuel work carried out.”

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