The Board held five disciplinary hearings in December 2021, three relating to gasfitting and one each to sanitary plumbing and drainlaying.

Case one

A Certifying Gasfitter pleaded guilty to a charge of filing false or misleading returns relating to gasfitting. The charge is related to gasfitting certificates for 37 installations.

The Board considered the practitioner’s conduct was moderate to serious. To his credit, the practitioner had accepted responsibility for what he had done and cooperated throughout the investigation and hearing. However, he did have a previous disciplinary conviction.

Taking these matters into consideration, the Board fined the practitioner $3,000, ordered him to do training on certifying gasfitting work and recordkeeping, and ordered him to pay $4,700 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.

Case two

A Tradesman Plumber and Tradesman Gasfitter pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying out negligent or incompetent gasfitting. The charge is related to the conversion of a domestic LPG gas installation to natural gas where the practitioner failed to install an appliance regulator on the gas hob.

The Board considered the practitioner’s conduct was moderately serious. The practitioner had accepted responsibility for what he had done and had no previous disciplinary offending and these factors were in his favour.

The practitioner was fined $3,900 and ordered to pay $4,760 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.

Case three

A Certifying Plumber, Certifying Gasfitter and Certifying Drainlayer pleaded guilty to charges of employing an unauthorised person to carry out drainlaying and causing drainlaying to be carried out in a negligent or incompetent manner. The charges related to the replacement of residential stormwater drains.

The Board considered the practitioner’s conduct was moderately serious. However, in his favour, the practitioner had accepted responsibility for what he had done and cooperated throughout the investigation and hearing. He had no previous disciplinary offending and had offered to fix the defective work, gotten his staff authorised to do drainlaying work and passed the Certifying Drainlayer exam himself.

Taking these factors into consideration, the Board fined the practitioner $1,950 and ordered him to pay $5,300 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.

Case four

A Tradesman Plumber and Certifying Gasfitter pleaded guilty to a charge of issuing false or misleading returns relating to gasfitting. The charge is related to the certification of gasfitting work at two industrial sites.

The Board considered the practitioner’s conduct was moderately serious. However, in his favour, the practitioner had accepted responsibility for what he had done and cooperated throughout the investigation and hearing. He had no previous disciplinary offending, had expressed remorse and had taken steps to improve his certification practices so that he would not repeat the conduct.

Taking these things into account, the Board fined the practitioner $1,800, ordered him to do a course on certifying gasfitting work, and ordered him to pay $3,400 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.

Case five

A Certifying Plumber was found guilty of doing sanitary plumbing without a current practising licence and doing non-compliant sanitary plumbing. The charge is related to residential sanitary plumbing work.

The Board considered the practitioner’s conduct was low to moderate in terms of seriousness. The Board recognised that the practitioner had no previous disciplinary offending and this was in his favour. However, he had not taken any part in the hearing and the Board found this concerning as it indicated that he did not accept responsibility for what he had done.

The practitioner was fined $1,800 and ordered to pay $8,280 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.