HSE issues warning over work of poisoning builder

Problems continue to plague a builder found guilty of accidentally poisoning a client earlier this month.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has told all the former customers of Merlin Building and Roofing Contractor boss David Johnson to get his work checked.

Johnson was found guilty of manslaughter after he accidentally blocked a flue leading to a gas boiler by allowing mortar to drop into a chimney he was rebuilding at Robert Schenker’s Peterborough home in March 2006.

When the mortar solidified, carbon monoxide could not escape into the atmosphere and leaked into Schenker’s home and killed him.

The chimney was also later found to be structurally unsafe.

The HSE has told customers to get Johnson's chimney work checked by registered CORGI installers and other work by staff at local building control offices.