$128,000 for no electrical licence

A dodgy electrical worker was fined over $128,000 recently, in a decision NSW Fair Trading Minister, Linda Burney said was a warning to all contractors about the requirement to hold a valid licence.

Downing Centre Local Court convicted AAKA and its director, Ashmit Kumar, for a number of breaches of home building and electrical consumer safety laws, ordering them to pay a total of $128,660 in fines and costs.

Burney said that Kumar undertook illegal air-conditioning and electrical work across Sydney suburbs including Clovelly, Mosman and Wattle Grove.

“He posed a serious danger to himself, to the clients for whom he carried out the work and to other electrical contractors who may have to work on the same jobs later,” Burney said.

“The illegal activity included unlicensed contracting to do specialist work, doing unqualified air-conditioning work without an appropriate licence, carrying out a test on an electrical installation without being qualified to do so and carrying out electrical installation work not in accordance with Australian/New Zealand wiring rules.

“Mr Kumar also issued invalid certificates of electrical compliance for the electrical work carried out on four flats using the licence number of his former employer,” said Burney.

Burney said that Fair Trading is constantly trying to weed out dodgy electrical contractors, seeing their activity as a real danger to consumers.

“Home building and electrical consumer safety laws are there to protect consumers who engage builders and tradespeople to undertake work for them,” Ms Burney said.

“Breaches of these laws are taken extremely seriously and as this case shows, people who do not comply can expect a heavy penalty.”