Electrician fined for EICR.

I have been a prosecution witness in similar cases 2 of which have gone to the Crown Court. Although the certificates/reports are fraudulent fraud is a very hard to prosecute as you have to give evidence to cover what are known as “points to prove”. If there are 4 or 5 points to prove you have to give evidence on all of the points not just a few. For this Trading Standards offence you only have to prove 2 points. They are the person was acting by way of trade e.g the advertised themselves as an electrician, they took money for there services, they had documentation in the form of business cards, invoices, van logos etc. The trading standards officer provides evidence for this. Secondly the certificate/report was false OR misleading. That is where I come in with my report and photographs giving evidence on the content of the report/certificate. The last line of my statement concludes that the document was BOTH false AND misleading.

After giving my evidence in chief the cross examination tries to  undermine me with all sorts of tricks including on one occasion inter-mating that I had planted evidence.  The defence evidence usually starts off with “it was all right when I tested it" . Then under cross examination they change their story and say “someone must of changed it”. That story falls apart when pressed who might have done that and why would they have done that. Asking the defendant to explain what the items on the inspection form are and why they have been ticked as satisfactory when they are not present is fun to watch.

The offence carries  up to 2 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine plus costs. The last one I did the judge was proposing a custodial sentence but when the defence barrister asked for 15 minutes to seek instructions from his client the judge agreed to this but bailed the defendant to the  confines of the court. After a long sob story of the defendants circumstances the judge agreed to to a non custodial sentence, a large fine and costs.

I have been a prosecution witness in similar cases 2 of which have gone to the Crown Court. Although the certificates/reports are fraudulent fraud is a very hard to prosecute as you have to give evidence to cover what are known as “points to prove”. If there are 4 or 5 points to prove you have to give evidence on all of the points not just a few. For this Trading Standards offence you only have to prove 2 points. They are the person was acting by way of trade e.g the advertised themselves as an electrician, they took money for there services, they had documentation in the form of business cards, invoices, van logos etc. The trading standards officer provides evidence for this. Secondly the certificate/report was false OR misleading. That is where I come in with my report and photographs giving evidence on the content of the report/certificate. The last line of my statement concludes that the document was BOTH false AND misleading.

After giving my evidence in chief the cross examination tries to  undermine me with all sorts of tricks including on one occasion inter-mating that I had planted evidence.  The defence evidence usually starts off with “it was all right when I tested it" . Then under cross examination they change their story and say “someone must of changed it”. That story falls apart when pressed who might have done that and why would they have done that. Asking the defendant to explain what the items on the inspection form are and why they have been ticked as satisfactory when they are not present is fun to watch.

The offence carries  up to 2 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine plus costs. The last one I did the judge was proposing a custodial sentence but when the defence barrister asked for 15 minutes to seek instructions from his client the judge agreed to this but bailed the defendant to the  confines of the court. After a long sob story of the defendants circumstances the judge agreed to to a non custodial sentence, a large fine and costs.