Forged quals, dangerous work!!! Long story but worth the read!

[Geordie Spark]

So about two months ago now, I got a call from a customer asking if I could do a few bits, "of course" I said. She asked for a rough price to change one pendant for two and install a new socket. I said roughly £100 depending on RCD, Bonding, blah blah blah... and we arranged a date (about a week later) for me to go and price for the work. A day before I'm due to go round the customer phones to say someone has been round and quoted and she doesn't need me any more. Fair enuff.

About a month after her first call, I get another call from the same customer asking if I could pop round and give her a quote to do a few bits. Bit strange I thought but I arranged a date and this time wasn't binned off the job the day before so I got to go round and meet her this time. I arrive to find two pendants in place of one and a new socket added. She explains that the plasterer that had been round to make good the terribly shoddy work of the previous spark had refused to plaster over the gaping hole in the ceiling with only a bare connector block where the old pendant lived feeding the two new pendants. The guy hadn't even bothered to wrap it in tape! Wow I thought, hats off to the plasterer for actually knowing and refusing to go over it.

Anyway, I said for £45 I'd stick in a maintenance free JB and bob's your uncle. We arranged a suitable time for me to go back round to do it and only then did she present me with what I could only call shocking work! She showed me the extra socket run in trunking and spurred from another, only the trunking came from the existing, stopped at a cupboard and came back out the other side to the new socket. Upon looking in the cupboard, The 2.5mm cable had been stretched across it like a banjo string!! Tight as anything, unsupported and just in the middle of the cupboard!

I said to her that there was no way on earth that the guy who has done this work is a qualified electrician! To which she replied "But he showed me his qualifications?!" as she showed me two pictures that he'd emailed to her of his quals, 2382 and 2391. Upon closer inspection however it was blatantly clear that they were forged! Just scanned in certs that he'd then used MS Paint to put on his details!!! The guy also claimed he was registered with Elecsa which upon further investigation turns out he's not registered with any of the scam schemes. I said to the customer that this guy should be reported not only for fraud by misrepresentation but also for carrying out notifiable works in a kitchen and not being registered and not a cert in sight! The customer was quite happy to do this and pretty much gave me free reign to do what I liked with regards to reporting this bloke.

The next day, I'm on the phone to LABC who have passed me on to trading standards. Apparently it has to go through TS before LABC deal with it? I phone TS and they appear to be very helpful and arranging a time for an officer to meet me at the premesis to assess the work and forged documents.

So a week or so later, I'm back at the house and am met by the customer and the TS bloke who has looked at the work and the dodgy quals, taken some photos and seems very eager to catch this guy! He made it very clear though that he would only be going after him for the fraud, and not the dodgy work as that was down to LABC. I fixed the dodgy work for the £45 as agreed, and as a good will gesture sorted out the banjo string cable in the cupboard as well. It turns out that the original bloke had charged her £45 to do the original work and was there for about 5 hours!!! I did make a point of saying to the customer that when you're only prepared to pay peanuts, you'll only get monkeys, to which she agreed.

The next day I'm back on the phone to LABC, tell them what's happening and am basicly met by the reply, "Although we are responsible for enforcement where dangerous work has taken place and/or work doesn't comply with the building regs, we don't actually carry out enforcement"!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I asked why and they just said "Because we just don't"!?!?!?!

Anyway, to bring this story to a close, the customer had contacted the original guy for a refund and been quite rudely refused. This I then sorted out for her by contacting the scamster directly telling him exactly what's what, reg for reg, law for law, word for word. The customer told me the next day by text that she woke up to £45 on her hallway floor! Problem 1 solved! However, what really riles and frustrates me about this whole episode isn't the scamster electrician, isn't the dangerous work, nor the forged quals. The thing that really makes me proper mad is the fact that LABC were about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike!!! No enforcement my a**!!!!

Why on earth are we paying such extortionate amounts of money to these scam schemes! These so called official and government approved bodies, when LABC won't bother with enforcement when people aren't even registered as required by the building act!!!!!! I gotta hand it to Trading Standards though as he was keen as mustard to catch this bloke and has promised to update me when he does

My main point though is that I'm so livid about this whole thing. Makes me seriously, and I mean 'seriously' consider giving up paying my scam scheme coz what's the point???? Nothings gonna happen to me if I'm not registered!!! Why bother?!?!?

So you've finally woken up & smelled the coffee?

Better late than never !!!

 

[Top Cat]

I think for every argument over labour or conservatives there will always be a counter argument that is quite valid.

If you wish to dish Margret thatcher you should be of an age that went through that era.

With regards to nationalised industries, how many of you worked in one? I did and it was the most unproductive place i have ever worked in.

Does anyone remember in the 70's when the unions were bringing the country to its knees? Red Robbo at British Leyland, the 3 day week, if you didn't have the right union card you couldn't pick up a broom?

100 years ago the bosses were to strong then the unions got to strong, we need something in between.

Sweetness and light to everyone!

 

[Geordie Spark]

just goes to show that part p,never has,never will work..

So why are we bothering with it ??

 

[Geordie Spark]

I whinged about it to my last scam inspector - why they don't police it, and he said it's not their job to, it's the LABC's but everybody knows that they don't have the time money or expertise to do it. And he even went so far as to say that in his opinion, the majority of 'old school' sparks that whinge about part p do so because actually they're not very good sparks!!!! Bloody cheek of it, but I kept quiet and got on with the half day.

You're a better man than me ......... I would have ................ remonstrated with him (Make a forcefully reproachful protest)

 

[Top Cat]

You're a better man than me ......... I would have ................ remonstrated with him (Make a forcefully reproachful protest)

Tel it Geordie like, no one will know!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Tel it Geordie like, no one will know!

OK then .... Aah wuda ****ted him !!!!

 

[brav]

you should be able to do the assessment jobs, then notify through napit once accepted.

So dont i have to notify 48hrs before the jobs, the assessment could be weeks later? Iv been stressing bout this for ages, to get a job i have to be competetively priced, but if i add £166 on top of a quote for labc iv no chance of getting any job. Also doesnt the assessor for napit/elecsa etc check tht the assessed jobs have been correctly notified, which means i still have to pay the money from somewhere?
Sorry i know this is off topic but any help on this guys would be appreciated thks

 

[Top Cat]

You have to notify the job within 28 days of completion. If the assessment is say 35 days after completion some people would say they only finished the job 2 weeks ago (paperwork would have to match). This is wrong (i have to say that!) but...............................

 

[thekingiam]

i rang labc to notify they told me to do it through elecsa or one of the others. they said no one has contacted them since part p was introduced they all go through the scamers

 

[Risteard]

you should be able to do the assessment jobs, then notify through napit once accepted.

I've always wondered how that works (given that I don't live in either England or Wales). But how can they allow this, as surely it is at least technically possible that you don't pass the assessment?

 

[trev]

There is no money for excessive public spending! We have no choice!

However, there is money in the pot to give aid to India (A country which can afford nuclear weapons and a space programme) Pakistan (see india minus the space programme) China (probably the fastest growing economy in the world) Argentina (still not offered any reparations for invading the Falklands)
Need I go on?

 

[HandySparks]

I've always wondered how that works (given that I don't live in either England or Wales). But how can they allow this, as surely it is at least technically possible that you don't pass the assessment?

You're right. It's a fudge, but that's exactly what I did when I registered with ELECSA. If you do the work on your own house, who's going to tell! To avoid paying £300 (in my case) to the LA, it's worth the (small) risk.

 

[Guitarist]

However, there is money in the pot to give aid to India (A country which can afford nuclear weapons and a space programme) Pakistan (see india minus the space programme) China (probably the fastest growing economy in the world) Argentina (still not offered any reparations for invading the Falklands)
Need I go on?

And India don't even want our aid any longer, yet still we send it....

I think giving 100 billion to the banks would be a better idea, so that they can lend to business....

 

[Guitarist]

I've always wondered how that works (given that I don't live in either England or Wales). But how can they allow this, as surely it is at least technically possible that you don't pass the assessment?

I actually spoke to my LBC and got permission to do my own CU change myself for assessment (that's how conscientious I am), without officially notifying. I then notified when I was accepted on to the scheme.
I don't think LBC even consider that anyone will fail, and tbh, why would you apply unless you were pretty confident you weren't gonna lose nearly 500 notes......

 

[Dave 85]

However, there is money in the pot to give aid to India (A country which can afford nuclear weapons and a space programme) Pakistan (see india minus the space programme) China (probably the fastest growing economy in the world) Argentina (still not offered any reparations for invading the Falklands)
Need I go on?

I dont particularly agree with the amount of foreign aid given away, but it certainly, pound for pound, is the most economic way of saving peoples lives available. A million pounds spent on nonsensical H&S enforcement in this country may save 1 life, the same money donated to the poorest families in india may save a thousand.
Aid given to india goes to its millions upon millions of inhabitants who are on the verge of starvation, not to its space program.
The uk spends £47.6 billion a year on debt interest repayments. Those were, for a large part, debts accumulated, unrestricted, by labour, who never made any effort to halt the rate at which they increase. The tories have gone to great lengths to limit the uk's borrowing. Labour treated credit in the same manner that a large part of the population now treat it......free money that will allow us to have a great time now and we'll worry about repaying later (or let the tories worry about it).....

A few more years under Brown and the country would be fast heading the same way as Greece.

 

[trev]

My point was that these countrys can afford very expensive things like rockets and nuclear weapons so should not be in receipt of any aid. Our government contantly pleads poverty and how deeply in the crap we are but somehow finds money to give to these countrys at the same time as saying to the armed forces "Welcome home from the (illegal) occupation. Oh and by the way here's a redundancy notice"
What happened to Cameron's bonfire of the quangos that we were promised would save us shedloads of money? It's gone exactly the same way as a lot of politicians promises.
We're all in this together as the PM likes to remind us. My backside.

 

[imago]

With regard to the part P issue and jumping through the hoops, I'm not happy with it, but I will continue to do it. My work is completed to the standard required by the regs, or my standard where I feel the regs are inadequate. I have all the required insurances, qualifications, and tools to carry out the work that I do. If something comes up as part of a job which I don't tick all the boxes for, I get someone in who does. I have the required membership of a self cert body (ELECSA).

Why do this when I know I could quite easily trade without them and increase my profit? Because that way I have a peaceful nights sleep. No one can point a finger at me for anything to do with my work. People get the certs that they should, and work to the required standard or better.

As for the political debate, the 'this party, that party' arguements always make me smile. Talk about missing the important issue/player in all this. Ever hear of an organisation called the 'Civil Service'? The one that's been in power for over a century in it's current form. The one that cannot be influenced, voted for, controlled or held to account by the electorate. The one which provides policies and schemes for the puppets of the day to publicise. The one which controls and allocates budgets. The one that organised the building regs and got it's cronies in to draw them up. The one that provides the management strategies and staff for LABCs across the country. The one which is consulted on privatisation. The one whos retired employees go on to work for the contractors which take over where public organisations once ruled.

 

[Engineer54]

Er , no , completely incorrect.
Gordon Brown & Labour sold the UK's gold reserve and stripped all the private pensions , undermining our countrys' finacial independance.
Maggies privatising of various sectors created wealth that would have become stagnant under state ownership.

I can see the mods shutting down this thread in the very near future lol.

All i can say is, that you must be living in a different parallel dimension to everyone else, either that, or you were on cloud cuckoo land!! lol!! The only wealth these sell-offs gained, had nothing to do with anything benefiting the country...lol!!


The UK had very little gold reserve left, after Maggie and her successor!! lol!! That got somewhat diminished propping up the economy, after the TWO ''Boom & Bust'' periods during there term of tenure. Both those bust's cost the country S**t loads of money, whereas the Booms made the wealthy, a dammed sight wealthier!!

Believe me i'm no lefty, by any stretch of the imagination, i can say roughly the same, but in other areas for the Labour Party. But it's the so-called working class (even though they have nothing to conserve lol!!) die hard true blues that blindly follow, flying their all blue flags, while there getting well and truely shafted, that i enjoy telling a few truths too.

You'll have to enlighten me as to what industries, apart from maybe coal mining and car making would have become ''Stagnant'' under state ownership?? Are you maybe talking about the substantial oil and gas fields, or maybe British Gas, and the Regional Electrical Boards, ...Surely not BT?? lol!!!

 

[Guitarist]

With regard to the part P issue and jumping through the hoops, I'm not happy with it, but I will continue to do it. My work is completed to the standard required by the regs, or my standard where I feel the regs are inadequate. I have all the required insurances, qualifications, and tools to carry out the work that I do. If something comes up as part of a job which I don't tick all the boxes for, I get someone in who does. I have the required membership of a self cert body (ELECSA).

Why do this when I know I could quite easily trade without them and increase my profit? Because that way I have a peaceful nights sleep. No one can point a finger at me for anything to do with my work. People get the certs that they should, and work to the required standard or better.

As for the political debate, the 'this party, that party' arguements always make me smile. Talk about missing the important issue/player in all this. Ever hear of an organisation called the 'Civil Service'? The one that's been in power for over a century in it's current form. The one that cannot be influenced, voted for, controlled or held to account by the electorate. The one which provides policies and schemes for the puppets of the day to publicise. The one which controls and allocates budgets. The one that organised the building regs and got it's cronies in to draw them up. The one that provides the management strategies and staff for LABCs across the country. The one which is consulted on privatisation. The one whos retired employees go on to work for the contractors which take over where public organisations once ruled.

Well said

 

[Tonkatoy27]

You'd have to be bloody useless to outright fail an assesment. If you fail any points you get 2 weeks or so to put them right and send in evidence. Another farce as all the other jobs said failee have done will continue to be substandard. It's not in the scammers interest to fail anyone as they won't get the company on their books for an annual assessment and the £400 that comes with it. You do not have to notify the job you are assessed on with LABC, it'll get notified when you eventually pass. It doesn't even matter if you don't notify within 28 days, I've been really busy on occasions and haven't got arround to it for 8 or 10 weeks, no problems and nothing said by ELECSA.