London cafe owner fined £60k after man dies as a result of faulty shower room electrics

A London cafe owner was given a £60,000 fine after a man died on the premises after being electrocuted.

Sukran Sanli, who owns Adams Café in London Road, CR0 2TD, and her company was also given a 26-week suspended prison sentence and told to do 200 hours of community service.

Her case was heard at Croydon Magistrates Court on Monday, March 20, after Croydon Council’s food and safety team investigated the death by electrocution of Mustafa Ozbek on January 21, 2020.

Mr Ozbek was living in a room at the back of the cafe.

Sanli had paid an unqualified electrician to carry out work twice in 2016 and 2019.

Mr Ozbek was electrocuted because there was no main earth connection to the incoming electrical supply and when a fault occurred on a circuit, the fuse did not operate to trip and cut off the electricity.

It meant metal pipework in the shower room became live with a dangerous voltage which resulted in his death.

The council’s investigation involved specialists from the Health and Safety Executive to inspect the cafe.

It found the electrics were “unsatisfactory” with a number of items identified as being “potentially dangerous”.

Sanli pleaded guilty to four charges, two against her and two against her company, relating to offences under the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974.

Jason Perry, executive mayor of Croydon, said: “This is a tragic incident that could have been avoided.

“We will always seek the toughest penalties against business and property owners who endanger the lives of others through careless disregard for health and safety law.

“We hope that this very sad case serves as a stark warning to others, to make sure they are fulfilling their duties under the legislation and that all works are carried out by a qualified tradesperson, to avoid putting others at risk.”

Croydon Council is urging businesses to only employ qualified electricians, accredited by one of the approved bodies for electrical contractors, to carry out work on their installation.

These bodies include the Electrical Contractors Association, (ECA), NICEIC, and NAPIT.

Look out for the logos and check the registration of the electrician before allowing them to undertake work.

£14 million cash boost to accelerate rollout of low carbon heating

More than £14 million is being made available to accelerate the installation of heat pumps and heat networks across the country, as a new scheme launches to train thousands of installers.

Over £9.7 million will go towards 4 projects based across the country, from Bristol to Cambridgeshire – helping cut costs of these low carbon technologies, and reducing disruption to consumers by coordinating the wide-spread rollout in concentrated areas.

To propel the move to cleaner energy in homes, a new £5 million Heat Training Grant will support 10,000 trainees over the next 2 years to become low carbon heating experts – creating new green jobs and growing our economy in flourishing green industries. Grants of up to £500 will go towards training with heating manufacturers such as Panasonic, Valliant and Worcester-Bosch expected to offer additional discounts to participating trainees.

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Lord Callanan, said:

This funding will give the rollout of heat pumps a huge boost by making them cheaper and easier to install, and importantly helping more households move away from costly fossil fuels.

But we need a skilled workforce to deliver this, so we’re training thousands of people to be experts at installing heat pumps and heat networks, driving the country’s push towards net zero.

We’re also making sure the cost of installing a heat pump is more affordable than ever before through grants of up to £6,000 through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and a zero rate on VAT. So, it’s right we also put funding in place to train installers to meet demand.

Heat pumps are highly efficient and reliable and are key to cutting carbon emissions using cheaper renewable energy produced here in the UK.

The government’s £60 million Heat Pump Ready programme aims to develop innovative solutions to reducing barriers to the rollout of low carbon technology in homes and businesses across the UK.

The 4 Heat Pump Ready projects, 2 in Oxfordshire and one each in Bristol and Cambridgeshire have been successful in the second phase of funding.

The innovation programme runs alongside the government’s £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, that provides up to £6,000 grants to homeowners towards the cost of a heat pump, and a zero rate of VAT, making clean heating measures even more affordable for people looking to replace gas or oil boilers in their property.

Work on installing heat pumps purchased through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme will begin in the successful projects from late December this year. The government expects heat pump deployment to reach 600,000 per year in 2028, a tenfold increase from 2021.

To meet demand, the Heat Training Grant will provide heating engineers with grants of up to £500 towards training.

The grant could cover most of the cost of a level 3 heat pump course, which takes one week or less for an experienced gas or oil heating installer to complete. In addition, heating manufacturers including Baxi, NIBE, Panasonic, Vaillant, Ideal Heating and Worcester-Bosch are expected to offer additional discounts and offers to participating trainees. These benefits could be worth up to a further £500 in product vouchers, additional training and other support, helping trainees put their new skills into practice.

Karen Boswell, Managing Director UK and Ireland at heating manufacturer Baxi, said:

We welcome the government’s investment in developing the new skills needed to support the growth of low-carbon heating solutions in homes and buildings.

We are fully committed to helping the industry transition to net zero, and we’re focused on helping individuals access opportunities to participate in the anticipated growth of air source heat pumps.

Shaun Edwards, CEO Groupe Atlantic UK, ROI and North America Divisions, said:

At Ideal Heating we believe installers will play a critical role in the decarbonisation of heating and we welcome further government funding targeted at heat pump training. Our Ideal Heating Expert Academy has also committed to providing additional subsidised training for installers participating in the government scheme.

This financial support, together with the forthcoming opening of our state-of the-art National Training and Technology Centre, will make the upskilling of the sector to install and maintain heat pumps as affordable and accessible as possible, to support the drive to net zero.

Carl Arntzen, CEO of Worcester Bosch said:

We are delighted to see the announcement by government of the funding for installers to become qualified to install heat pumps. There is great interest in future technologies and with this funding installers can gain the confidence and skills to offer heat pumps to their customers.

The latest support comes in addition to the £15 million government has already committed to developing skills in the energy efficiency and low carbon heating sectors since 2020.

The government already funds heat pump training through the Home Decarbonisation Skills Competition, however the new funding will now extend support for heat pumps until at least 2025, and also goes further by including training for heat networks.

The heat networks training courses will cover the full lifecycle of the systems from initial design to building, operation, and maintenance. Government is also aiming to develop a series of courses and online training videos for heat networks operation and maintenance.

By providing heat networks training support alongside heat pumps, areas of overlap and collaboration can be better explored, particularly around the installation of large-scale heat pumps for heat networks and shared ground loops.

Government is now seeking expressions of interest from training providers who wish to offer the new grants for heat pump training.

Product Recall – Fluke 8x V Series Digital Multi-meters

Fluke has identified a potential safety issue affecting certain Fluke 83V, 87V and 88V Digital Multimeters (‘Fluke 8x V series DMMs’).

Fluke 8x V series DMMs in a certain serial number range may have plastic material intrusion in the COM input terminal. In rare cases, the plastic has sufficiently covered the wall of the input terminal such that it can inhibit proper contact.  

This has been observed at specific orientations of the test lead plug within the input terminal when used with the “split core” TL75 test leads that shipped with certain regional variants of the product.  

If using the Fluke 8x V series DMM for the purpose of confirming the absence of voltage this may result in a non-hazardous voltage reading when hazardous voltage is present, thereby creating a potential safety risk.

The importer has withdrawn the product from the market and informed all distributors to stop sale and return any affected.

Further information

For further information please read – https://www.fluke.com/en-us/support/safety-notices/8x-v-safety-notice and https://www.gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls/product-recall-fluke-8x-v-series-digital-multimeters-dmm-2301-0135

£3.27 million allocated to upgrade Electric Vehicle charging network in Northern Ireland

A £3.27 million bid to upgrade the Electrical Vehicle charging network across Northern Ireland will see the entirety of the public charging network enhanced for the benefit of communities and electric vehicle users.

Plans for the funding allocation include:

  • replacing 100 fast chargers; the equivalent of 200 charge points
  • upgrading 20 unreliable fast chargers to rapid chargers, more than doubling the existing capacity
  • introducing five high-power charging hubs in key locations, which can charge multiple vehicles at the same time

This would deliver high power charging hubs for the first time in Northern Ireland. The aim is to encourage people to adopt Electric Vehicles and promote green travel, as we transition to cleaner and greener modes of transport.

Product Review – SEBSON PIR Sensor

Please watch the below video for an independent review of the SEBSON PIR motion detector for indoor.

  • The motion detector has a maximum power consumption of 1200W for usual lamps and 300W for energy saving lamps.
  • The infrared sensor of this motion detector detects movements in a detection range of up to 6m with a detection angle of 360° (on free area).
  • The duty cycle is 10 seconds to 15 minutes.
  • The built-in motion detector can also be adjusted according to the ambient brightness (in the range between 3 and 2,000 LUX).
  • Size – dimensions Ø75x75mm

This sensor is available to buy from Amazon via the below link.