Concerns Raised Regarding Developments In Poole And Reading

A plumbing and heating company has been fined alongside two self-employed people who worked for the firm after a number of faults were discovered with gas installations at new developments in Poole and Reading.

DSI Plumbing and Heating were ordered to pay £10,000 and costs after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed issues including gas leaks and flues and gas supply pipes not properly fitted at the Harbour Reach development in Poole and the Caversham Road site in Reading.

Robert Percival of Poole and Andrew Church of Gosport were given two year conditional discharges and ordered to pay costs in relation to the problems.

Percival was involved as he commissioned gas installations at one property, while Mr Church had made false entries into commissioning documents and had failed to undertake the necessary checks.

Harvey Wild, head of operations at the HSE, said: “These serious failings involving gas safety only came to light after residents started to complain about ill-health.

“It is fortunate that in this case, no-one suffered long term ill-effects but the consequences of the faults, if left undetected, could have been fatal.”

Katrina Elsey, a solicitor at Irwin Mitchell who specialises in helping those injured as a result of safety failings, said: “Very serious failings were identified in relation to these two developments and it is simply unacceptable that the health and safety of those using the buildings was put at risk as a result of issues which should have been avoided.

“The nature of our work means we have seen numerous cases when people have suffered injury and illness as a result of gas safety problems, including instances when people have been seriously hurt and lost the majority of their possessions as a result of gas explosions.

“The seriousness of meeting responsibilities related to gas safety cannot be downplayed and it is vital that lessons are learned from cases like this to ensure that the same issues are simply never repeated in the future.”