Illegal County Down fitter jailed for working on gas despite having been banned

A County Down gas engineer has been jailed for six months for working on gas illegally and fraud.

Laganside Crown Court heard that Ian Campbell, trading as MGB Gas and Building Services, had removed a gas boiler from a property in Belfast in May 2024, and was not Gas Safe registered.

He carried out the work despite the fact that HSENI had issued him with a Prohibition Notice in February 2022, which banned him from carrying out any gas work until such time as his training and registration were up to date. The Prohibition Notice was still in effect.

Prosecutors in the PPS’s Fraud & Departmental Section worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland to build the prosecution.

The investigation found Mr Campbell removed a gas boiler from the property and was paid for the work. Despite having been paid, no new boiler was installed at the property.

At the same time he carried out the work, Mr Campbell was already subject to a separate ongoing prosecution case for similar breaches of the Gas Safety Regulations following illegal gas work at a property in Bangor, County Down, in November 2022. Mr Campbell was later fined and sentenced for these offences in June 2024.

Ian Campbell was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at Laganside Crown Court after pleading guilty to three health and safety offences. A further charge of fraud by misrepresentation was presented by the PPSNI, to which Mr Campbell also pleaded guilty.

Speaking after the hearing, HSENI Major Investigation Team Inspector Kiara Blackburn said: “Ian Campbell undertook gas work which he was not registered to do. This is not only a breach of the gas safety regulations, but it also places members of the public, homeowners and tenants at significant risk from potentially unsafe gas installations.”