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North Perth electrician fined for potentially lethal error that led to two tradies being shocked

Staff WriterEastern Reporter

A North Perth electrician has been hit with a heavy fine after a potentially lethal error led to two tradies receiving electric shocks at a building site in Golden Bay.

Santo Sgroi was found guilty of breaching WA’s electricity licensing regulations last month at a criminal trial in Perth Magistrates Court.

The court was told that Mr Sgroi attended the work site in August 2015 to transfer an energy consumption meter from a temporary installation used by builders to the main switchboard at a new home.

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He was privately employed and carrying out the work as part of Western Power’s Contractor Connect Scheme, which lets accredited electricians connect some new installations to the utility’s network.

After Mr Sgroi left the property, a tiler and gas fitter working on the house both received electric shocks in separate incidents when they touched the main switchboard.

The gas worker was briefly hospitalised but neither man was seriously injured.

A Western Power inspector found “the connection of the active and neutral load conductors at the meter was transposed” causing the surrounding earthed metal components to become live with electricity.

During the trial, Mr Sgroi’s defence team argued the incorrect wiring could have resulted from vandalism or tampering by someone else after he had left the site.

But Magistrate Thomas Hall found there was no direct evidence of a third party having been in contact with the meter.

He noted that although Mr Sgroi was an experienced electrician, he failed a Contractor Connect Scheme audit one month after the incident.

Magistrate Hall said based on the facts, the only reasonable inference was that Mr Sgroi caused the transposition and failed to test the meter properly, resulting in the shocks.

“Fortunately they were not seriously injured, but they could have been killed,” Magistrate Hall said.

Mr Sgroi was fined $5000 and ordered to pay $22,214 in costs.

In November 2017, Western Power pleaded guilty and was fined $50,000 in relation to the same incident because Mr Sgroi was an authorised worker for the network operator.

He has since been removed from the Contractor Connect Scheme.

WA’s Director of Energy Safety, Saj Abdoolakhan, said it was essential all electricians took care and responsibility for their work.

“The job is not done until all the required checks and tests are carried out and recorded diligently and methodically,” he said.

“There is no excuse for cutting corners with any area of electrical work because of the potentially deadly consequences.”