Repeat offender jailed for illegal gas work
Unregistered gas fitter Israel Jackson has been jailed for 12 months after carrying out dangerous gas work and issuing a fake safety certificate at a 90-year-old man’s home in Croydon.
The pensioner’s relatives raised concerns when they noticed the hot water wasn’t working and they could smell gas. Jackson returned to carry out repairs more than once, even after a British Gas engineer had issued an Immediately Dangerous notice. One day after the notice was issued, Mr Jackson demanded that his taxi fare be paid to come back to the house and, while there, he completely ignored the notice and put the boiler back into use.
HSE Inspector Lucy Ellison-Dunn said: “Israel Jackson did not think that the law applied to him. Despite a previous conviction for the same offence, he continued to carry out gas work, in this case putting the life of a vulnerable man at risk.
“He fraudulently told people he was a registered gas engineer despite not having the competence to install the boiler and pipework correctly.”
Jackson, who has never been Gas Safe registered and was previously prosecuted in 2015, installed a boiler in May 2022. He admitted breaching Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 3(3) and 3(7).
HSE said Jackson put a vulnerable customer at serious risk, and U-Works Services Ltd, the firm that sent him to the job without checking his credentials, has been served with a Prohibition Notice.
