A rogue electrician put lives at risk with his botched work. John Waugh admitted 23 counts of breaching building regulations with his shoddy repairs, in the first prosecution of its kind.

A court heard his electrical work could have had fatal consequences.

Waugh, 47, of St Alban's Crescent, Heaton, Newcastle, was fined a total of £16,000.

At Newcastle magistrates' court, chairman of the bench, Jim Brennan, himself a qualified electrician, said: "This could have resulted in death or serious injury and we are applying fines accordingly."

Is this the one?

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/tm_objectid...

Just to introduce a little perspective here -

None of us actually knows the exact nature of each case, nor are we able to determine the exact risks posed by the faulty installations described thus far.

Some things to think about -

An educated guess might suggest that nigh-on 100% of the present Domestic UK housing stock would fail a rigorously-applied PIR in some way or other at this very moment.

Get two 'Registered' inspectors to PIR the same property and you'll find that both would 'fail' it in different ways, to different degrees of severity, and would most likely come up with two different sets of 'recommendations'. Who is right? And more importantly, who do you believe if it was YOUR work being scrutinzed?

Transpose this scenario with a 'registered' inspector being asked to perform the role of 'expert witness' for the prosecution in one of the recently-described cases. He's paid dearly for his assessment/membership and he's damned if he's not going to find a fault somewhere. Add the Media and stir vigorously to sell copy, and what do you have?

A year has passed and the ODPM is getting sick and tired of being prodded to death about Part P by the Electrical Industry lobby groups - Including the NIC/NAPIT etc. No doubt some internal edict has gone out to the LBAs to 'nick an few' to show that 'we really do care about Part P'.
Say one in each area for example.Just think of all the free publicity, MUCH Cheaper than a naff telly ad!

Don't labour under the misguided delusion that Part P will actually make any installation safer. My guess is that the fatality stats will actually rise - along with the number of prosecutions. How does this help the consumer?

And no - I shall not begin to Notify simply on the strength of all this hype.

Hey whats wrong with that nice quality piece of wiring, I suppose he could have used a bit more pvc tape to protect it.  

I had a similar join in the sumps on my automatic gates, nice and damp atmosphere bit of choc block and red pvc tape to protect it. Amazing how easily that tape came off, now joined in IP rated junction boxes.

All protected on the RCD anyway so not likely to have reached a hazardous point, but not done the right way.
The previous owner paid good money for that install too.

P.S. Only joking on the first comment hence the wink.  

Cwatters, a certificate is required for all electrical installation work. In this case a Minor Works Certificate should have been provided - this is nothing to do with Part P, but has long been required by the wiring regulations... routinely ignored by all trades, including many electricians.

As the work is in the kitchen, minor or not, the local authority building control office should have been notified.

Oh, and you can be pretty sure that the necessary pre-checks of the installation have not been carried out.

Stephen mitchell of 3 mitcheldever way, bracknell in berkshire, is reported to have left the court expressing how ' P'd off 'he was now feeling

Oye Chubby


I have thought of a great new job for you, you will love it. You will meet lots of people, working in the outdoors or inside, you will be able to see & hear of all the news before most people.

As you like telling everyone the news you here or see, and you like putting smilies up how about this for a job. Selling newspapers, then you can give all the customers you get, real beeming smiles.

Now wouldnt that be a lovely job for him people, and your customers will take more notice of you than we do, well a few seconds maybe.

i had my kitchen extension rewired by a bandit with all the bits of paper to inspect his own work.he wired a cooker point and said the microwave could plug into it.i questioned whether a fused spur would be more appropriate.he looked at me as if i had kicked him in the b----cks!and asked me how many houses i had rewired.so i shut up.the building inspector asked me where the microwave was going and said i needed a fused spur.i phoned the bandit and told him wot the inspector said and he said'oh yea,ithought you might need one of them,i'll pop round and do it'
i've yet to see a bit of paper with 'part p' written on it stopping 240v from tickling your fingers

best regards

wretch