AN illegal engineer who installed faulty boilers and falsely claimed he was registered to work as a gas fitter faces a £1,015 court bill for five health and safety breaches.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Julian Franklin told York magistrates a registered gas engineer found five defects on two boilers installed by Bennett Morley in Hillsborough Terrace, off Wigginton Road, in 2009 and The Limes, in Stockton-on-the-Forest, in 2008.

One of the faults had the potential to put people in the property at risk of death or injury.

Morley, 29, told magistrates he had spent the money he earned as a handyman on getting married and household expenses rather than registering with the Gas Safe Register and he thought his work complied with current standards.

Magistrates fined Morley, of Cherry Paddock, Haxby, £500 and ordered him to pay £500 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Morley pleaded guilty to two charges of doing gas fitting work he was not competent to do, two of carrying out gas work without being registered and one of falsely claiming that he was registered.

After the case, Mr Franklin said: “While the danger was not immediate, the customers involved did complain, allowing the HSE to investigate and take swift action.

“The HSE will not hesitate to prosecute workmen like Mr Morley who bypass or choose to ignore important safety legislation and thus put people at risk.”

Morley, who represented himself, told magistrates he qualified as a gas engineer while serving an apprenticeship with British Gas. He had since left the company and set up as a sole trader. When magistrates asked why he had not registered, he said: “It was a struggle with money, trying to find the rent, pay the bills etc.

“I didn’t make the right choice. I spent money being married when I should have spent it on registration.”

He had started working for himself doing work in bathrooms and some gas work in 2007, but now worked four days a week as a window cleaner and one day a week doing painting and decorating.