A trainee electrician has been fined $10,000 after a property owner received an electric shock from a live wire left exposed.
Bradley Carl Payne was sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court over the incident in March 2022.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said Payne had agreed to deliver a shipping container to a residential property in Taranaki and would provide a certificate of compliance after completing electrical work on it. The electrical work involved installing and connecting conductors and fittings to the power supply.
Although a trainee, Payne carried out the work unsupervised, which was illegal.
A live wire was left exposed on a kitchen bench inside the shipping container, and the property owner received an electric shock.
In court, Payne was found guilty of two charges of carrying out unauthorised prescribed electrical work and one charge of negligently doing work in a manner dangerous to life.
“This type of negligent work just goes to show that carrying out prescribed electrical work needs expertise, training, and qualification — without which it can be even fatal,” Duncan Connor, registrar of electrical workers, said.
Payne was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, solicitor, and court costs.
“All complaints about unauthorised and poor or dangerous work are taken seriously and investigated by the Electrical Workers Registration Board, who will not hesitate to prosecute those undertaking illegal prescribed electrical work,” Connor said.
