Unregistered electrician first in country to be jailed

Electricman

I would be interested in comments on the article below from The Examiner.

Google " Electrician Jailed " for more articles

Unregistered electrician first in country to be jailed
An unregistered electrician has become the first person to be jailed in Ireland for carrying out dangerous and illegal electrical work.
Michael O’Connell, who operated as O’Connell Construction with an address in Blessington, Co Wicklow, was given a six-month sentence at Naas District Court for portraying himself as a registered electrical contractor and illegally carrying out restricted electrical work.

Judge Desmond Zaidan imposed the sentence on the unregistered electrician because of the severity of the case and the poor standard of the work.

He handed down a three-month sentence for O’Connell carrying out electrical work while unregistered and another three months for portraying himself as a registered electrical contractor. No portion was suspended.

The prosecution was taken by the Commission for Energy Regulation, which has responsibility for regulating the activities of electrical contractors. The case was taken on foot of an investigation by the CER after a complaint was made about the works carried out by O’Connell on an attic conversion on an unidentified family home.

CER investigators established that the electrical works carried out by O’Connell were wholly unsafe and constituted a real danger to the occupants of the house, which included two adults and three young children.

The CER welcomed the court’s ruling.

bigroad

Hard to know,How many people are working on vehicles that are not fully quailified mechanics,equally as dangerous.

Bruthal

He should have picked up 50 convictions first. Immune to jail time then for his electrical work.

colm_mcm

That Judge Zaidan loves making the newspaper IIRC

Bruthal

bigroad wrote: »

Hard to know,How many people are working on vehicles that are not fully quailified mechanics,equally as dangerous.

Dangerous is nothing to do with this though.

Bruthal

colm_mcm wrote: »

That Judge Zaidan loves making the newspaper IIRC

I was just thinking that myself.

2011

It was only a matter of time, see link. I think that CER were itching to make an example of someone, they felt that they had to show that they had teeth.

I would like to believe that Judge Desmond Zaidan took the view that putting peoples lives at risk was a far more serious issue that not being registered.
If a quarter of those that installed dangerous wiring during the Celtic Tiger years were jailed we would need a lot more jails.

Stoner

Well if the law is there it would need to have some examples of it working, otherwise it would end up as another completely flaunted arrangement like having lights on a pushbike.

Was anyone ever jailed for installing an intruder alarm without a licence ? If so is it one per year? As I always felt that this law would follow that one in how often it was enforced.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

I would like to believe that Judge Desmond Zaidan took the view that putting peoples lives at risk was a far more serious issue that not being registered.
.

I'd imagine had he registered last week (before the work), all would have been perfect.

Electricman

I would be particularly interested in comments from the guys on this forum who are rewiring their own properties. There is no legal exemption under the law for homeowners, even if they are qualified electricians.

Bruthal

Electricman wrote: »

I would be particularly interested in comments from the guys on this forum who are rewiring their own properties. There is no legal exemption under the law for homeowners, even if they are qualified electricians.

Well they best be registered if they want a "safe" installation.

2011

Electricman wrote: »

I would be particularly interested in comments from the guys on this forum who are rewiring their own properties. There is no legal exemption under the law for homeowners, even if they are qualified electricians.

There isn't really much to say. As an experienced qualified electrician I do not relish the idea of having to pay someone else to do electrical work on my home.

I have no doubt that qualified mechanics would be pi55ed off if they were in they could face prosecution in a court of law for fixing the brakes on their own car.

Stoner

We've been over this already if you wanted to have a review . We can't offer legal advice here, some strong conclusions are that being registered does not guarantee quality, not being registered does not suggest poor quality.

Being able and being registered are two different things .

However we can't advise people to break or circumvent the law here.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

.

I have no doubt that qualified mechanics would be pi55ed off if they were in they could face prosecution in a court of law for fixing the brakes on their own car.

Particularly if it was illegal for the qualified person to change 4 sets of pads, while the "competent" diy man could change 1 set.

2011

In the interest of balance: There are plenty of competent electricians out there working for first class registered electrical contractors who invest a lot of money in training their staff, maintaining standards, insurance etc. The jobs of these electricians and the future of RECs are under threat when they are undercut by "less compliant" nixer merchants.

This has been done to death on this forum already (as alluded to by Stoner).
I don't think that there is anything to be gained by going over it all again.

On that note I think that this thread has run its course ....

2011

Just to add, as per the Forum Charter:

Illegal Acts or "Nixers"

Illegality is... illegal.
This rule means no advocating, no condoning, and no soliciting or providing information about means of breaking the law including the Restricted Electrical Works Legislation (see above) and the evasion of taxes.