Jail sentences have become the standard punishment for anyone found in breach of gas safety regulations.

Once again, a plumber has been hit with a suspended prison term for carrying out gas fitting work when he was not on the Gas Safe Register.

We have now seen two of these cases in the last two weeks and it seems evident that the courts are showing no leniency to people who choose to ignore the regulations of gas safety.

Christoher Dignam is the latest to face the consequences of breaching the law, as his advertisements in local publications were accompanied by a Gas Safe Register logo and a fraudulent registration number. He was trading in the Manchester area under the name ‘Blue Flame Plumbing & Heating Services.’

Some of the work he carried out was found to be faulty and he is not registered on the Gas Safe Register and never has been.

Living in Middleton, Dignam pleaded guilty to two breaches of Regulations 3 (3), and also for being in breach of 3 (7) and 26 (1) of the Gas Safety (Instillation and Use) Regulations 1998.

His sentence was 12 months in custody, suspended for two years, as well as being ordered to pay £460 and £400 in compensation to two home owners along with £3,000 in costs.

This latest case comes just a week after Alan Nicholas Price, a plumber from Walsall, was sentenced to a nine month prison term, suspended for two years, also for carrying out work when not registered by Gas Safe.

Earlier in the year, a man from Darlington was sentenced to an 18 month jail term for pretending to be a Gas Safe engineer, as well as signing official records in the name of a registered gas engineer.

The Gas Safe Register replaced CORGI as Great Britain’s gas registration body in April 2009.