Who Are the Rogue ‘Cowboy’ Engineers?

Thousands of illegal ‘rogue’ gas cooker fitters are installing gas appliances in the UK without any proper qualifications or training.

In London alone, 79% of rogue boiler fitters had installations that were deemed a risk or immediately dangerous. This is an incredibly hazardous risk and can put lives in danger if you employ an engineer that is not fully qualified and registered under the Gas Safe register.

So let us just break it down for you. It is illegal for ANYONE who is not gas safe registered to do any work, installations or repairs on any gas appliances! It is also illegal to tamper with any gas appliances. This is simply because cooker installations, fire places and boilers as well as other things are quite complex. If you are not 100% sure of what you are doing, there could be gas leaks and carbon monoxide fumes being produced without your knowledge. So next time you think about employing a family friend to help you out because they have ‘done it before’, think again as it could put everyone within your property in immediate danger.

Once you have had your cooker properly installed by a registered gas safe engineer you should always maintain it properly, clean it regularly and have an annual gas safety check to ensure no problems have occurred.

Real gas safe engineers will have a gas safe registration number which you can check online and also have a badge with them at all times that you can ask to check.

In the case of John and Emily Reid, Mr Irvine, a joiner, had been cutting out a work top for a cooker installation and informed Mr and Mrs Reid that he can connect a hose pipe to the gas supply for their cooker installation even though he was not qualified. Because of the poor installation, the hose pipe ended up with a kink in it causing a hole that leaked gas which exploded once Mr Reid accidentally hit the ignition on the cooker when he went to inspect a gas smell. The explosion meant the house had to be demolished and rebuilt along with the houses which were either side of the property. Mr and Mrs Reid suffered burns of which some required a skin graft and the damages amounted to millions. Mr Irvine was sentenced to 300 hours of community work because of his negligence.

Do not ever risk such damage in your property and ensure you use a gas safe engineer for all of your gas appliance work it is not worth the risk! Avoid those cowboy engineers for your safety and report anyone who is working illegally with gas to gas safe.