Thomas Gwyn Morgan and Margaret Powell were found dead in her home
Some 250,000 gas appliances in Britain and the Isle of Man are installed or serviced by illegal fitters each year, according to a watchdog.
Over the last nine months, 12% of gas installations that were investigated were classed as “immediately dangerous”, the Gas Safe Register said.
Fourteen people have died and 234 have required hospital treatment in the last year due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
It has prompted a campaign to alert householders of the dangers.
Safety Scheme
By law, only registered engineers should carry out gas work in people’s properties.
This register is overseen by the Gas Safe Register, a safety body that replaced Corgi in April 2009.
The group estimated that at least 7,500 illegal gas fitters are at work without the skills, qualifications or registration to do the job. It said that almost as many gas hobs and ovens were installed by unregistered gas fitters as registered ones.
Of the installations discovered to be dangerous, 39% were leaking gas, and 45% had flueing or combustion faults.
The Gas Safe Register has replaced Corgi.
The Register wants householders to ensure that they use registered workers, and to request a free inspection if they were suspicious of recent work.
Tragedy
Those who died as a result of poorly-installed gas appliances included Margaret Eileen Powell, 72, and Thomas Gwyn Morgan, 74, who were found slumped on the sofa at Mrs Powell’s home in Brecon, Powys, in December 2006.
Peter Tongue, 60, of Llanspyddid, near Brecon, Powys, was jailed for three years in July after being convicted of their manslaughter at Cardiff Crown Court.
Self-employed gas engineer Tongue had called to service Mrs Powell’s gas boiler 12 days before and had inadvertently left it in a lethal condition.
Despite being a Corgi-accredited engineer, Tongue’s registration for that type of boiler had lapsed three years before.