Forged Qualifications – Fake Electricians Exposed

The JIB have reported that a labourer recently doctored his ECS card in an attempt to pass himself off as a qualified electrician. This attempt could have put lives at risk had the fraud not been identified immediately. Luckily the person in question was challenged and may now face prosecution and imprisonment under The Fraud Act 2006.

David Thomas, the Strategic Development Manager at the JIB advised that fake certificates and ECS cards continue to be an issue that the JIB are combating. However, in order to crackdown on these forgeries the industry and needs to be vigilant and pay closer attention to the JIB cards and qualifications of operatives to ensure they are indeed genuine.

The ECS are experienced at detecting fraud and have recently seen an increase in ECS applications containing doctored certificates. Unbeknown to these applicants the ECS Compliance Unit work closely with City & Guilds, EAL and CSCS fraud investigators who combat these cases. All applicants that have been highlighted as fraudulent are immediately withdrawn, reported to the authorities and cannot reapply for an ECS card for at least six years. Additionally, those that have been successful and later found to be forgeries also face the same fate.

Unfortunately, this is not a new issue and cases of fraud have been reported by many over the last few years. Cases like this are not only extremely dangerous but can also give the industry itself a bad name. Only those applicants who have relevant experience and technical certificates along with their NVQ 3 Electrical should be applying to the ECS for their JIB gold card.

If you have any information regarding a fake ECS card please report this to ECS in an email to administration@ecscard.org.uk .

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