County Down gas engineer jailed after unregistered boiler removal and prior prohibition breach
A County Down gas engineer has been sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to three health and safety offences, following an HSENI prosecution tied to unregistered gas work in Belfast. Ian Campbell, trading as M.G.B Gas and Building Services, removed a gas boiler from a property in May 2024 despite not being registered with the Gas Safe Register and despite an existing prohibition notice that barred him from carrying out gas work until his training and registration were brought up to date.
The case turns on a basic control that exists to prevent avoidable harm: only registered engineers are permitted to carry out gas work legally. When that control is bypassed, the risk is not abstract. Gas appliances, pipework, and installation changes carry immediate hazards if they are handled by someone without the required competence, oversight, or legal authority. In this case, the boiler was removed, payment was received, and no new boiler was installed at the property.
The prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland after a notification that the work had been carried out. Prosecutors in the PPS Fraud & Departmental Section worked with HSENI to build the case. Campbell also pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud by misrepresentation, adding a separate legal dimension to the unsafe work itself. The custodial sentences for the offences are to run concurrently.
The legal breach extended beyond a single job
This was not an isolated lapse. At the time the Belfast work was undertaken, Campbell was already facing a separate ongoing prosecution for similar breaches of the Gas Safety Regulations after unregistered gas work at a property in Bangor, County Down, in November 2022. He was later fined and sentenced for those offences in June 2024. The existence of a prior prohibition notice, served in February 2022, makes the later conduct more serious: the restriction was not merely advisory, but active and explicit.
A prohibition notice exists to stop unsafe work before it can injure anyone. Once issued, it is a direct instruction that the person must not continue the regulated activity until the underlying problem is corrected. Ignoring that notice while continuing to work on gas systems defeats the entire purpose of the safeguard and leaves householders exposed to unsafe installations or incomplete work that can create downstream risk.
Why registration matters in gas safety enforcement
The Gas Safe Register is the central mechanism used to verify who can legally perform gas work. That system matters because the danger in gas work often emerges after the engineer has left the property. An incomplete installation, a missing appliance replacement, or a poorly handled removal can leave residents with no safe heating, no verified appliance connection, or an installation that has not been completed by a competent, registered professional.
HSENI Major Investigation Team Inspector Kiara Blackburn said Campbell undertook gas work he was not registered to do, describing it as a breach of gas safety regulations that placed homeowners and tenants at significant risk from potentially unsafe gas installations. In practical terms, that risk falls on the people living in the property, not the individual who accepted the job. Residents assume an appliance has been handled lawfully and safely; when that assumption is wrong, the consequences can be immediate and serious.
The court outcome also sends a clear signal about enforcement priorities. Gas safety regulation depends on documentation, registration status, and compliance with prohibition notices. When those controls fail, regulators can pursue both the unsafe work and any deception used to obtain payment or represent competence. Fraud by misrepresentation is especially relevant in this setting because the customer is relying on a false assurance that the person is authorised to do the work.
Concurrent sentences and the consequences of repeated offending
The notes to editors list four breaches or charges: Article 5(2) of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978; Regulation 3(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004; Article 31(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978; and Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006. Each attracted a six-month sentence, with all custodial sentences running concurrently.
That sentencing structure means the court treated the offences as serious enough to justify custody, while still imposing one overall period of imprisonment rather than stacking the terms one after another. Repeated disregard for gas safety controls, especially after a prior regulatory intervention, leaves little room for leniency. The enforcement response reflects the reality that gas work is a high-consequence trade: if the person doing the work is not registered, the margin for error narrows quickly.
For homeowners and tenants, the practical safeguard remains simple. Verification should happen before any gas work begins, not after. HSENI points residents to the Gas Safe Register so they can check whether an engineer is currently registered to perform the work legally. In a sector where a single improper installation can create risk long after the visit ends, that check is not bureaucracy for its own sake; it is the first barrier between competent service and preventable danger.