Having pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud and fraud by false representation between May and September 2019, two men have been sentenced to 28 months each at Chester Crown Court.
Callum Ingram and Stephen McWhirk had falsified Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) health, safety and environment tests for commercial gain. The tests are required to obtain construction industry competence cards.
They were test centre administrators at the accredited DWM Plant Ltd in Knutsford, Cheshire.
However, during a counter fraud investigation, CITB investigators uncovered a large-scale criminal operation involving mostly foreign nationals being assisted on their CITB HS&E test. Some candidates were travelling long distances and taking their tests in only four or five minutes by means of assistance via a remote mouse.
The case was reported to Cheshire police and the two men were charged with the offences. They were believed to have profited by around £37,700.
During the sentencing hearing, Recorder Taylor noted that the fraud had exposed potentially large numbers of people in the industry and members of the public to risk of serious harm by providing a means for unqualified people to work on building sites when they had no idea of health and safety requirements.
Some of those involved were found to be unable to understand any instructions in English.
CITB’s Fraud Manager, Ian Sidney, who led the initial investigation, said: “We welcome the result today, it sends out a message that we will not tolerate individuals compromising construction site safety by facilitating some people cutting corners to obtain their site cards, without the required knowledge, skills or experience to pass the tests.”
The centre was terminated, and 1305 tests were revoked in Jan 2020. Affected candidates were offered a voucher to retest for free and allowed a three-month period in which to retake their test.
