Gas fitter jailed over boiler tragedy

Mark Ellis, 41, was found dead on the floor of his bathroom from carbon monoxide poisoning after James Charlton failed to properly connect the flue.

Investigators later found 44 other homes where Charlton had installed faulty flues, with some boilers being classed "dangerous" and immediately condemned while others were judged "at risk".

In total 140 examples of his past work was examined and only five boilers had no defects. More than 100 were not up to current regulations.

Charlton, of Hade Edge, near Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence and breach of gas regulations after a trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

Jailing him, Judge Roger Keen said he had made "as bad an error as could be made" and had even tried to shift some of the blame on to his apprentice.

"It is difficult to envisage how anyone could fall further short of the proper standard of work required," he said, adding: "There has been not a shred of pity for Mr Ellis, no remorse at all."

Charlton, 31, who ran his own business, was fully qualified and a member of the former Corgi registration scheme for gas installers. But he failed to send Corgi details of his work as required and householders were left with repair bills running to hundreds of pounds to rectify his shoddy work.

Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, said he failed to secure the flue to the boiler so gas fumes were not conveyed outside Mr Ellis's home in Dodworth, Barnsley, as they should have been.

Charlton told police he was supplied with the wrong flue and had to change it but denied the installation was incorrect and claimed someone else must have altered it later.