Builder who poisoned a client has jail sentenced reduced by a year

A builder found guilty of accidentally poisoning and killing a client has had his three-and-a-half year jail sentence reduced by 12 months.

David Paul Johnson, 56, of Ipswich, had his jail sentence reduced to two-and-a-half years on appeal.

The former boss of Merlin Building and Roofing Contractors in Whittlesey was charged after a man died when he accidentally blocked a flue leading to a gas boiler in March 2006.

Johnson allowed mortar to drop into a chimney he was rebuilding at the Peterborough home of mechanic Robert Schenker, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Johnson was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter and health and safety offences in April in the Norwich Crown Court.

Justice Griffith Williams at the Court of Appeal said Johnson was not a “cowboy builder” but that he had taken a series of shortcuts that had led to the accident.

According to the Fenland Citizen, Williams said the three-and-a-half year sentence was excessive because it did not take into account the positive qualities of the defendant whose general workmanship was not substandard.

The judges also took into account the fact that the boiler had not been properly serviced and no-one was aware that the flue did not have a safety debris trap which would have prevented the blockage.