Rogue West Midlands handyman sentenced after illegal boiler fitting caused 'immediate danger to life'

A self-employed handyman has been sentenced after carrying out illegal work at a property in Birmingham and falsely claiming to be on the Gas Safe Register (GSR).

Jaroslaw Mazan’s illegal work resulted in several defects to a boiler unit, including a gas leak which posed an “immediate danger to life”.

In November 2023, Mazan was hired to carry out work by a landlord at a property in Birmingham.

The tenant of the property witnessed Mazan installing a boiler in the home, but realised he had lied about being registered when they could find no evidence of him on the GSR website.

A GSR inspector attended the address the following month to carry out an inspection of the gas work, where they found an “immediately dangerous gas leak” on the pipework of the boiler, as well as several other “possibly dangerous” defects.

It led to a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation, which found that Mazan had carried out the gas work without being competent to do so, and without being registered on the GSR.

HSE guidelines state that only those who are on the register should carry out gas work, and that the work must be carried out to appropriate standards.

Whilst no one was injured, the HSE said that carrying out gas work without registration is illegal, and potentially extremely dangerous, with unqualified work possibly leading to gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning.

HSE inspector Harry Shaw said: “This dangerous boiler fitting was a disaster waiting to happen, and the resultant gas leak could easily have caused a lethal explosion.

“The tenant did the right thing – and quite possibly saved themselves from serious harm – by checking the Gas Safe Register and alerting inspectors when they realised Jaroslaw Mazan was unregistered.

“My message to anyone getting gas work carried out is simple: always use a Gas Safe Registered engineer, and if you aren’t sure of someone’s credentials, it only takes two minutes to check.”

Mazan pleaded guilty to breaching gas safety regulations at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on Friday, June 12; he received a 26-week suspended sentence and was ordered to pay £500 in compensation to the tenant of the property.