Unsafe gas boilers in Lytham St Annes hotel put guests at risk
Guests at a hotel in Lytham St Annes were at risk from unsafe gas boilers for nearly two years because the contractor that installed them was not qualified to undertake the work.
North West Mechanicals Ltd (NWML) and a senior manager at the firm were prosecuted for safety failings by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after two new industrial boilers were installed at the Glendower Hotel on North Promenade between November 2009 and March 2010.
NWML was paid just over £43,000 to replace the boilers despite not being registered or having any qualified employees who could carry out the work.
The court was told the firm did become registered in March 2010 - partway through the boiler installation - but only to carry out domestic gas work. However, the firm was still not qualified or registered for commercial work.
Once the company had finished installing the boilers, it arranged for a specialist engineer employed by the manufacturer to commission them. He raised concerns that the boilers had not been satisfactorily ventilated but, despite this, NWML still issued a certificate to the hotel to say the boilers were safe to use.
When a registered gas engineer from another company visited the hotel in September 2011 to carry out a routine service, he identified several faults with the installation and immediately disconnected the boilers.
NWML was found guilty of single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 following a trial at Blackpool Magistrates' Court. The company, of Wyrefields in Poulton-le-Fylde, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £11,247 in prosecution costs on 28 August 2013.
Senior contracts manager David Hanmer, 67, received two concurrent eight-week prison sentences, suspended for 12 months, which means he will be sent to prison for eight weeks if he commits another offence within the next year. Mr Hanmer, of Magdalen Road in Thornton-Cleveleys, was also ordered to pay £8,976 in costs.
There is no suggestion that the hotel was responsible for any wrongdoing.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Stuart Kitchingman said: "Staff and guests at the hotel were put at risk of suffering carbon monoxide poisoning or being injured in a gas explosion because of the unsafe way in which NWML had installed the boilers.
"For the majority of the time the firm was installing the boilers it was not approved to carry out any kind of gas work - let alone to work with commercial boilers.
"All gas engineers must, by law, be registered with Gas Safe to prove they are qualified to carry out work safely. NWML ignored this and put lives in danger as a result.
"Anyone who hires a gas engineer should check their Gas Safe ID card to ensure that they are suitably qualified to carry out the work."
Russell Kramer, chief executive of Gas Safe Register, said: "As one in five illegal jobs we investigate are found to be immediately dangerous, it's vital that people always make sure the person employed to work on their gas appliances is on the Gas Safe Register.
"Every Gas Safe registered engineer carries an ID card which not only proves who they are but also gives details of the kind of work they are qualified to carry out."
