A self-employed contractor has sentenced after carrying out gas work he was not registered to do and left it in a dangerous condition.

Mark Lauder, who trades as DrainTech South West, was contracted by a landlord to repair a water leak at a tenanted property in Plymouth during May 2017.

The leak was in a water pipe buried in the concrete floor of the property. As he uncovered the water pipe using power tools he struck a live gas pipe. There was an immediate release of gas and Mr Lauder sensibly turned off the gas at the property meter.


An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that when he made the repair, Mr Lauder used the wrong type of fitting and failed to test his work to ensure that it was gastight. Instead of contacting the gas emergency services he left the damaged gas pipe overnight and attempted to repair the gas pipe himself the following day.

The landlord instructed a properly registered gas engineer to visit the property who found that there was a leak and traced it to the repair made by Mr Lauder. Mr Lauder is not and has never been registered to undertake any form of gas work.

He pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 3(1), 3(3), 6(2) and 6(6) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. He has been sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for each charge, suspended for two years. The sentences are to run concurrently. He was ordered to pay costs of £2,000.