Kevin please change careers before killing someone

[captaincaveman]

Hi,
If you're a spark, you're reading this, your name is Kevin, you work in the Manchester area and you did a job in Rusholme yesterday on lights that kept tripping the RCD - Please reconsider your career before you do serious damage.
It's forgivable that you were unable to diagnose an insulation fault with the lights and blamed it on a faulty RCD (though the customer said you thought it was both RCDs which should have made you think again). I presume you don't have the right equipment for insulation & RCD testing?
It's also forgivable taking the lights off the RCD as a tempary measure.
What isn't forgivable is taking the 1.5mm lighting circuit with an insulation fault on it, taking it off the 6A breaker and putting it directly on the main ccu switch protected only by the suppliers 100A fuse! To compound matters you didn't even put it on the consumer side. Instead putting it on the supply side so when the customer was getting a firework display last night - they couldn't even isolate the electrics!!!
I don't know how much current was going through the light fitting but even the copper had disintergrated.
I seriously believe if I hadn't attended at 1am this morning there wouldn't be a house still standing.

 

[SparkyChick]

I'd like to like this post but it seems strangely wrong to attach a like to something so serious.

 

[telectrix]

I'd like to like this post but it seems strangely wrong to attach a like to something so serious.

it's good that there are still sparks out there responding to dangerous situations like the one in caveman's post. my hat off to OP for going out @ 1.00 a.m. and saving the situation.

 

[Andy78]

Get the customer to report this bugger to trading standards, HSE, anyone who'll listen. He'll only do it again next week.

 

[westward10]

Should consider himself lucky he is not explaining himself to a judge.

 

[Pete E]

Would anyone who has had the slightest training/experience of electrics do such a thing? The guy is reckless/negligent to the point of endangering life and property and really does deserve to be prosecuted....

 

[Squid]

The worst thing is leaving a known fault working with no protection.

How much did Kevin charge the client for the work as they should be chasing him for the money at least.

 

[Squid]

Let us know what the issue is as it would be interesting to know what failed and how it failed.

 

[Andy C]

Unbelievable and so sad. The possible consequences to not only the clients family but others if there had been a fire. The sparks family as well whilst he is in prison.

Why people do this sort of thing escapes me.

 

[GMES]

Get him reported before he kills himself or someone else, the customer must have his details, even if it was a cash job they must have a mobile for him which should be passed on to the authorities.
Did you get any pics for evidence.

 

[westward10]

I think most of us become less and less shocked by works carried out by supposed electricians these days, the whole trade needs enforced regulation like some overseas places.

 

[Pete999]

Can we see the post by KEVIN please

 

[telectrix]

Can we see the post by KEVIN please

kevin too busy feeding horse.

 

[Zdb]

Hopefully Kevin gets zapped on his next job and moves on to plumbing.

 

[Pete999]

The OP is Offline, maybe when he comes back he may give.

 

[Octopus]

No doubt the customer paid cash and has no idea where ""Kevin" came from, lives , etc.

Some people can be so stupid.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Well i suspect if somebody else phoned the cowboy and said they want some work doing he would appear like the cat in Alice in wonderland.

I would send rogue traders on the watchdog/BBC a link as they love a good story like this one. i would also contact local papers and name and shame him that way. He needs stopping. In this area last year trading standards got an injunction against a 'plumber come heating engineer' who was lucky not to have killed people when working on boilers. he is now not allowed to do such work as part of the court order.

 

[telectrix]

Hopefully Kevin gets zapped on his next job and moves on to plumbing.

only once the zap has fried his brains

 

[static zap]

Mmm Brains ,some fava beans and a nice chianti.

 

[Squid]

kevin too busy feeding horse.

You mean Kevinski

Can we see the post by KEVIN please

 

[KEV 1 N]

.....It wasn’t me by the way, I’ve never been to Manchester!
Can’t understand what the thinking was putting it on the incoming side of the main switch???
As others have mentioned, it could have ended in disaster!

 

[Dave OCD]

I do wonder if there really is a Kevin or could the customer or family member/friend have had a go at it ? It horrifies me that any Sparks could be so moronic !

 

[pirate]

When I first read this, I was astonished...and reading the subsequent posts simply reinforces how truly appalling this was...peoples' lives really at risk...not some hypothetical risk that might manifest itself at some vague point in the future, but a time-bomb that luckily was defused by Caveman before someone actually died. I am an amateur, but competent in many areas, but my real competence is in knowing when something is outwith my ability...this is a truly shocking example of crass incompetence, and complete negligence...reckless negligence, and frankly, had a fatality ensued this would have been culpable homicide...
(shakes head for the twentieth time today- a travesty)
As SparkyChick said, it's odd to "like"this post, but good to flag up its importance
As Westy said...he's lucky not to be explaining himself to a judge
...and, hopefully, he may yet have to do so

 

[Pete E]

Hopefully Kevin gets zapped on his next job and moves on to plumbing.

Suspect he might have been a plumber to start with because he is certainly no electrician!

 

[telectrix]

i don't think that even a plumber could be so stupid. a builder perhaps. either way kevin needs a 25 mm tail shoving up his arse with 240V applied.

 

[captaincaveman]

Wow! This post was only meant to be for Kevin lol!
Great replies to you all.
Kevin was supposedly the customers sons sparky & highly recommended by the son. I did try to push for more - solely so I could 'talk' to Kevin to make him think & to stop him doing this again. but the customer didn't seem too helpful (I suspect for his sons sake). Ergo my thread.
They paid him £40 and he was going to return to replace the RCDs. He wont be returning (if the owner has anything to do with it).
I wasn't actually up for the job (knackered) and the customer wasn't thrilled at the idea of me coming out so I talked through the issue with the customer to see if I could help. We went through the usual stuff: "There are flashes from the kitchen light". "Turn the breaker off". "Done that- still flashing". "ok, turn the RCD for that side off". "Done that - still flashing". "ok, turn the main switch off". "Done that - still flashing". "You've switched the main larger red switch off and it's still flashing?". "Yeh". "ok, I'm on my way!!!!".
The fault, incidentally, was a conductor exposure just before the termination into the metal light. I think. There was a lot of damage...

 

[a-z electrics]

Well done that man

 

[Mike Johnson]

i don't think that even a plumber could be so stupid. a builder perhaps. either way kevin needs a 25 mm tail shoving up his arse with 240V applied.

I know a few builders who would be very upset by that unnecessary comment.

 

[Midwest]

I know a few builders who would be very upset by that unnecessary comment.

I know, he should of used the phrase buttochs

 

[Pete999]

I know, he should of used the phrase buttochs

No I think Arse will be sufficient.

 

[Midwest]

No I think Arse will be sufficient.

They often use the phrase builders bums, don't they? In any case, most builders I know are only interested in their bill being paid, and getting they're mark up on ones work, and not offended by name calling. Just saying.

 

[ruston]

We all name call other trades , It's called banter . Don't take it too serious.

 

[CACJL]

Hi,
If you're a spark, you're reading this, your name is Kevin, you work in the Manchester area and you did a job in Rusholme yesterday on lights that kept tripping the RCD - Please reconsider your career before you do serious damage.
It's forgivable that you were unable to diagnose an insulation fault with the lights and blamed it on a faulty RCD (though the customer said you thought it was both RCDs which should have made you think again). I presume you don't have the right equipment for insulation & RCD testing?
It's also forgivable taking the lights off the RCD as a tempary measure.
What isn't forgivable is taking the 1.5mm lighting circuit with an insulation fault on it, taking it off the 6A breaker and putting it directly on the main ccu switch protected only by the suppliers 100A fuse! To compound matters you didn't even put it on the consumer side. Instead putting it on the supply side so when the customer was getting a firework display last night - they couldn't even isolate the electrics!!!
I don't know how much current was going through the light fitting but even the copper had disintergrated.
I seriously believe if I hadn't attended at 1am this morning there wouldn't be a house still standing.

Somebody whos an extreme cowboy is not even fit to work as a burger flipper.

 

[Midwest]

We all name call other trades , It's called banter . Don't take it too serious.

I tend not to call scaffolders any names, especially the ones with big calloused hands.

 

[Midwest]

Somebody whos an extreme cowboy is not even fit to work as a burger flipper.

This blokes done alright ;

Burger van owner amasses £9m online investment fund | Daily Mail Online - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5340525/Burger-van-owner-amasses-9m-online-investment-fund.html

 

[ruston]

I tend not to call scaffolders any names, especially the ones with big calloused hands.

You are right , some powerful men there .
I know a lot of it is conditioning but they make it look so easy.

 

[telectrix]

I tend not to call scaffolders any names, especially the ones with big calloused hands.

even the ones with soft cissy hands can drop a hammer on your head from 40ft.

 

[Midwest]

Fortunately, I don't go near building sites these days. I do hold them in admiration mind; anyone stupid enough to shiny down a scaffold pole --- feet up without anyway of stopping, has got to be a complete nincompoop. Not that I would tell him not to.

 

[telectrix]

since you can't get on these sites anymore without a cscs card ( ECS for those of us with brains), i don't go near them either. more farting about than getting the job done.

 

[Midwest]

Yep. Years ago H&S wasn't even a consideration, not so nowadays. Think the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction.

According to the CDM 2015, I now have to complete a risk assessment when I go to Mrs Miggins house (doing a lot of work there recently?) to change her light bulbs (lamps to some). Madness I tell you, madness

 

[Pete999]

Yep. Years ago H&S wasn't even a consideration, not so nowadays. Think the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction.

According to the CDM 2015, I now have to complete a risk assessment when I go to Mrs Miggins house (doing a lot of work there recently?) to change her light bulbs (lamps to some). Madness I tell you, madness

 

[telectrix]

Yep. Years ago H&S wasn't even a consideration, not so nowadays. Think the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction.

According to the CDM 2015, I now have to complete a risk assessment when I go to Mrs Miggins house (doing a lot of work there recently?) to change her light bulbs (lamps to some). Madness I tell you, madness

my misuss eats all the CDM so i have to make do with Bournville. prefer it anyway. milk choc is sickly.

 

[Midwest]

my misuss eats all the CDM so i have to make do with Bournville. prefer it anyway. milk choc is sickly.

You idiot, Bovrnvrill is a beef extract drink, not chocolate. You've been consuming too much of that chocolate stout!

 

[telectrix]

You idiot, Bovrnvrill is a beef extract drink, not chocolate. You've been consuming too much of that chocolate stout!

Bournville, you pillock, not bovril..

 

[EbolaSideRoom]

Yet

Should consider himself lucky he is not explaining himself to a judge.

 

[Spoon]

milk choc is sickly.

Next you will be telling us you like Marmite....

 

[Spoon]

Stupid double posts....

 

[telectrix]

Next you will be telling us you like Marmite....

if it looks like shyte, feels like shyte, tastes like shyte, chances are it probably is shyte.

 

[Midwest]

Bournville, you pillock, not bovril..

Sometime my sarcasm is lost to the lessor mortals on this web site, me thinks someone's been on the juice before the sun has got passed the yardarm. I'm on catch up now

 

[Pete999]

Sometime my sarcasm is lost to the lessor mortals on this web site, me thinks someone's been on the juice before the sun has got passed the yardarm. I'm on catch up now

I'm on the 2nd bottle