Ed they are corrupt too, and treat people as though they are guilty and then have prove themselves innocent, while they ignore their own rules and natural justice, please see below a history of what happened to me....funded with the very same illegally gotten monies, ITS NOT JUST HOW THEY TAKE IT, BUT WHAT THEY DO WITH IT WHEN THEY GET IT.....ALL KNOWN TO UNCLE MAURICE.Please take the time to read, it is how they savaged my family....
Read it and ask yourself .....can these people be trusted with an open cheque book?
My story is but one of many, far too many for it to be a one off. I know and have met people from the top of the North Island all the way down to the bottom of the South Island with similar stories; most are too scared to come forward.
Most of the evidence that I rely on in my claims below actually appear in the bundles for my hearings, but are ignored, along with blatant conflicts of interest, even to this day by those at the Board and secretariat.
I have also told Maurice Williamson about my situation and am appalled that he now wants to pass this bill to legalise such incompetence and prior dodgy dealing, I am astounded that he now asks you to get the Board of the hook and perhaps himself because he has known about this situation for some time, plenty of time to have fixed this before rushing it through Parliament.
Concerns.
I have some grave concerns about this Board and its conduct. My points below and, this is far from exhaustive and are but an example of how the Board spends the illegal funds it has raised.
The Board have over a million dollars in reserve, they would not cease to function because of the loss of this illegal revenue, and besides have had plenty of time to address this.
My hearing raised more questions than were answered and cost the Board over $200 000.00 to hold. It cost me my home and business. I have spent the last two years working away from home, my wife and two sons, one Board member asked whether I had considered returning to the UK or going to Australia, when I told him the effect they had had on me and my family.
These unanswered issues, which I would be happy to provide information/evidence to give my claims substance, probably involve fraud, hiding incomplete safety certs at the site an explosion and huge covered up conflicts of interest, a lawyer would know best, but I can’t afford one. The Board to this day ignores all this, even though I have told them, repeatedly. I find in light of this behaviour to claim to want to alter the Act to enable them to carryout their duty to protect the health and safety of the public contradictory and hypocritical at best, an out right lie at worst.
I had child sexual abuse case notes sent to my house, read by my wife, this was by far the worst thing that happened and had the most effect on my wife, but apparently this is common practice amongst lawyers, as per the Board. They sent 3 such cases of this vile content to push their argument on probabilities.
I lost my home, business and reputation due to inflammatory letters being sent to my customers. My business and reputation failed not long after, my books reflect this.
Even though I was found 95% innocent, with nothing at the exploding chipshop accountable to me, and have a British Standard that clears the remaining 5% of charges, Mr Allan Bickers, member of IPENZ, along with Tony Hammond the “Impartial” Investigator, released a press release saying I lacked fundamental knowledge of my trade. Mr Bickers was present at my hearing and is the present chair of the Board. At my recent Board prescribed punishment, of a retraining in a unit standard, the assessor said I would be in the top 10% of any of the people he had ever trained. This course had to be custom made at my expense.
Gary Jones, the plumber/gasfitter mentioned in the damming OAG report, has received very poor treatment, his long suffering wife has had to have a double bypass for her heart, she told me herself it was because of a decade of stress inflicted by the Board, and to show how they operate her son’s apprenticeship was dissolved on the whim of a tamtruming deputy chair of the Board, Peter Jackson.
I think Kern Uren reflected the Board’s opinion to this OAG report quite clearly when he referred to the report, in front of witnesses, as “just one mans opinion, which he was entitled to”, this was when Gary asked about why he hadn’t got his licence yet, even though the report Gary appears in backed Gary’s position. He also said to Gary that for as long as he was deputy registrar Gary would never get his licence. Gary still does not have his licence to this day.
There is much much more. That is why I believe that a Public Enquiry is long over due.
History
I started at Allgas in late Feb 2003, for the first 4 or 5 months I was oblivious to the others workmanship and trade knowledge. Believing that, as a member of the many Gas Groups (that John Darnley let me know he was apart of, numerous times ) and with his being a licensed Craftsman Gasfitter, John Darnley (the Manager and once owner of Allgas) knew what he was doing and had good intentions. I was told right at the start that I was to fill out the work sheets only, and the office staff (mostly John’s Family) would fill out the certs and “all I had to do was sign them” they would them fill them in and file them, the only thing in my handwriting on these certs is my signature.
After about 5 months I became very concerned about how the work was being carried out, I knew it was unsafe and the frequency I came across dodgy work and customers stories while on site, really concerned me. I tried to address it with Allgas but was shot down every time by John Darnley and his family who ran Allgas with him. It came to a head on 6th November 2003 in an argument with Dave Bergman (John’s son in law). They were attempting to force me to install a califont against the advice of the large writing on the appliance box. I had only been there for just over 8 months. I was also told around this time to use poker face and make out I knew what I was doing. I was told this by John Darnley when I asked for a specification on a dangerous install (which later was installed, all told to the Board but no action taken).
10th November 2003 I had a meeting with John Darnley and a representative of Shell gas (Warren something), where I submitted a statement outlining my concerns. Shell had taken over Allgas before I joined, buying it from John Darnley and keeping him on as general manager, he was basically still in charge of Allgas Nelson.
13th November 2003 I was given a written warning by John Darnley, for expressing my concerns about safety to the boss’s son in law. I had shouted with frustration, having many times over the recent weeks trying to express my worries about safety concerns. My immediate reply to receiving this written warning was to tell John Darnley in no uncertain terms I would be leaving; he could not have been under any impression other than that I was going to leave as soon as I was able. I could not just up and leave immediately as I had very recently signed up for a mortgage.
The very day after, on 14th November, someone at Allgas ordered 4 books of non transferable gas certs in my name (first and only time) without my knowledge and paid for them with an Allgas credit card. This is later ok’d, after the explosion, as per the Boards Kern Uren (acting Registrar) and Tony Hammond (the Board appointed “Impartial” investigator).
19th November I give my two weeks written notice and leave employment. (My written resignation is dated 19/12/03 which is a typo and this is confirmed by my actual leaving date of 2/12/03 of the same letter). I had wanted to sort out some other work before leaving Allgas.
I went to work as a subcontractor at Rockgas early December and immediately (on my first day) started becoming aware of improper use of gas certs in my name, from my time at Allgas. I contacted the PG&D Board in December 2003 by phone (which was when I became aware of the 4 books ordered in my name by Allgas) and by then by letter on 6th Jan 2004 about my concerns about this improper use and the ordering of the four books mentioned above.
I was fobbed of by letter from the then Registrar with a letter, some of it had incorrect/misleading information about the four books of certs ordered in my name (the cert numbers of the 4 books did not correspond to the actual ones ordered in my name, I had no way of checking this as I didn’t order them or have them in my possession).
4th March 2004, nearly 3 months after I leave Allgas, someone writes to the Board, acting in my name to alter the address of a cert on Allgas letter head, I knew nothing of it at the time, only finding out much later after the explosion, which was when I told the Board, they said I was being vexatious for bringing it up.
A year later on 10th Jan 2005 I went to a job site that apparently according to the cert, I had signed off someone unknown to me, something I have never done not even to this day. I was called to the address for, ironically, a gas leak on work that went against best practice. I am pretty sure that the cert was one of the four books ordered in my name.
I contacted a lawyer (the Board refused to talk to me without one) on the 13th Jan 2005 to assist me in to getting to the bottom of this very confusing (to me any way) situation.
I also contacted Allgas which had a new Manager, a Tony Hunter, on the 24 January 2005. I told him I was happy to check all the sites but couldn’t do it for nothing and would have to cover the cost of my time and travel, it went no further.
The outcome of the lawyer’s investigation into this so far, was there were over a 1000 certs in my name and it would cost $25.00 per cert to check. I could not afford this potential sum of $25,000.00 and told them so by phone. The letter from the Board’s lawyer has inconsistencies and incorrect facts. It was written by a Belinda Greer, remember that name. She stated that the certs were correctly filled in….I later found out some were missing the test result entry for gas leaks.
This one set of correspondence alone, two letter and a fax, cost $349.97, I had a young family and could not afford to pursue. I thought a phone call would be sufficient to alert a conscientious industry Board about safety concerns.
I kept coming across dodgy work and as I couldn’t afford to address it the only way the Board would allow, I went to Nick Smith National MP on the 24th May 2006, resulting in a letter written to the Board dated 6th June 2006. I received no reply to this letter.
I sent a fax to a then Board member David Coxhead on the 21st August 2006, outlining my concerns and asking after the Nick Smith letter, no reply.
I then contacted Dr Cullen Labour MP by email on the 5th Sept 2006, I stated that I had “serious concerns for the health and safety for the people in my area” in an email.
I received a reply on the 12th September 2006 passing my concerns on to Damien O’ Connor Minister for Safety and Health.
I received a reply from Damian O’Connor on the 12th September 2006. It Stated that he would look into it, I received no other contact.
During this time, my eldest son (at the time only son) was diagnosed with being born without a fontanel (cranial syntosis) and had to have major surgery to his skull, twice. Also my mother was at the same time dumped on my door step after 35yrs of marriage, by my father, which highlighted her unknown until then emphersymia. My personal problems took over and I had neither the will nor energy to pursue this any longer myself, everyone I had contacted hadn’t done anything except Dr Smith, but even that appeared to be a dead end as far as I was aware. This very draining and trying period for my family covered from late 2005 to early 2009.
9th April 2009 a chipshop explodes nearly killing some one. The fact that the offending hose was changed once before and had been cut was ignored by the investigator; he said to the owner that he didn’t want to know. Photos that later surfaced at the hearing, taken by the forensic professional utilised by the police, showed what I had said for the previous two years were correct. The “ impartial ” investigator was in possession of them and never showed me them.
Nine days after the explosion at the chip shop, the owner of the chip shop’s lawyer requests all copies of gas certs for that address. One copy, for a pizza oven fitted a year after the initial install (by John Darnley) is denied to have been registered to the Board by John Darnley. This is as per Belinda Greer (see above for her name mentioned before); the Board still stick to this statement right up to today, even though a copy is available on the Boards electronic register. All carbon copies available show the test results for any gas leaks empty. Basically if the Board had, and I believe they did, receive this copy of the cert….they accepted a “safety” certificate for an untested install, untested for leaks….at the site of an explosion.
May 2009 John Darnley resigns from the New Zealand Institute of Gas engineers. (of interest Tony Hammond (the “impartial” investigator) is a fellow of NZIGE and Stephen Parker puts in his appologies for not being able to attend certain NZIGE meetings, along with other gas groups along with Darnley and is the man responsible for granting him full craftsman status after just one oral exam).
Tony Hammond is appointed as an “impartial” investigator. I came forward of my own free will and had several interviews. He brought to one a stack of the certs issued in my name; it was done on pink paper, with plain black ink….hiding the multitude of different colour inks on the certs. I was denied access to these certs 3 times, both before and after the explosion.
Tony Hammond not only granted John Darnley his craftsman ticket after just one oral exam (no apprenticeship done) but was also highly involved with several gas groups with John Darnley and was responsible for writing the contradictory gas reg and deregulating the gas industry. I tried to complain about this at an impartiality hearing and again was shot down.
2nd October 2009, 6 letters are sent to my customers (the same addresses that resulted in a charge), without my knowledge, implying that I am involved with the illegal issuing of certs in the upper North Island by Kern Uren the, at the time, Acting Registrar. It is a place I had not until then even visited. My business disappeared pretty much over night from this point onwards. This same person Kern Uren phoned me and threatened me and ignored the fact that I had produced 3 certs that had been added to after signing, evident by the writing present on the master copy but not on the carbon copies, and dismissed the letter written in my name 3 months after leaving Allgas, see above, he called me vexatious in a letter for doing so.
I was found to have been disadvantaged by these letters by the Boards own complaints QC, but am still waiting for any action or apology. I only found out about them when the local Motueka High school contacted me, Motueka WAS my main centre of business and the only high school in the area. The letters covered all the areas of my business; from the West Coast to Havelock, with Nelson and Motueka in between….this I believe was not a coincidence.
Lots happened and I can list a lot and prove a lot, but it is suffice to say that I was lied to and about and basically set up and made a scapegoat with huge conflicts of interest that were ignored, even after I brought them to light.
I had up to this time employed a lawyer at a cost of well over $10,000.00 but when I was told by him to “plead guilty and pay the $50 000.00 fine and open a café”. I stopped using his services and started represented my self, along with the immeasurable and free help of Wal Gordon and the Plumbers Federation, who have put in an immense effort on my behalf.
I complained at an “impartiality” hearing on the 22nd Feb 2010. Listing all my concerns, it was dismissed. Apparently it is OK to decide that you yourself are impartial.
I then attended a disciplinary hearing May 2011, where evidence was with held, witnesses refused to sign their own statements and it was overseen/chaired by Stephen Parker who is on the secretariat of GANZ, member of NZIGE and runs the Kennedy trust and other gas groups along with Tony Hammond, who is not an Impartial investigator.
I was found in this Kangaroo court 95% innocent of any wrong doing and only found guilty of one out of 44 charges, for fitting a califont using alternative reference material to the NON mandatory gas regs…gas regs that were co- written by Tony Hammond, my adducing in high court the very relevant British standard was disallowed, of note the only other certifying gasfitter in the hearing was Scottish. The charges were changed two days out, re-hashed to better fit the evidence and were full of lies.
Tony Hammond himself at the hearing, said if the fumes were not entering the building then I had adhered to the mandatory part one of the standard, the owner of the building said he hadn’t once had any problems or concerns and thought it was the only obvious place to install it. I also have an email from another co-author of the gas regs saying I can use a British standard; he is also a technical adviser for the Building and Housing dept.
In looking into this I found a cert in John Darnley’s name on the paper copy for an address in Blenheim, the electronic register puts it in my name. I told the Board about this, the Boards electronic register now carries a disclaimer stating that the electronic copy may not represent the true paper copy, the paper copy over rides it and is the legal copy.
In light of this legal clarification and disclaimer, I requested 150 certs, true colour copies from the Board, some of them from the four Books of certs ordered in my name. 11 of this test batch were claimed not to be in the possession of the Board (in exactly the same manner as the “pizza oven” cert at the exploding chipshop). But when I went to the gas supplier and photographed their copies, these 11 “missing” certs had the test results empty also (remember the pizza oven cert for the site of the explosion had similar missing information). When I told the Board about the photos, they miraculously found the copies, the missing information of testing on some of these copies were highlighted with highlight pen and so were beyond doubt noticed by someone, in all probability someone at the Board.
My punishment for is to do a retraining course to gain my licence early March 2013; the course has to be custom made for me, at my expense, because the course prescribed by them didn’t exist. The Board are in all intents and purposes are enforcing the NON mandatory part of the NZ gas regs. They boast of a 100% conviction rate, a statistical improbability, if not impossibility.
I was told at this retraining that I would be in the top 10% of people he had ever trained.
Nearly 4 years after the explosion, that I spent 6 years trying to warn that such a situation might happen, I am still waiting to see if I can up lift my licence for this coming period, and no one was held accountable, or even questioned, for the exploding chipshop or all the dodgy certs and faulty gas cert system.
Are these the type of people you want to give an open cheque book to by amending the Act?
Share Topic
Topic: The Board getting a break? (Read 16422 times)
August 10, 2010, 08:01:33 PM
