An electrician has been fined for leaving exposed live wires at a lethal voltage in a new home.

Joondalup Magistrates Court fined Aiden Dunstan $3,500 and ordered the electrical worker to pay $1,199.30 in costs on 9 June 2023 after condemning the error which involved missing hazardous exposed wires while checking work at a Two Rocks home in Western Australia.

Aiden had pleaded guilty to breaching WA’s electricity licensing regulations after being prosecuted by Energy Safety.

“The property’s electrical plan clearly shows the position of the light switch, so there is no excuse for missing such an obvious hazard,” Energy Safety WA director Saj Abdoolakhan.

“Without the required light switch cover, someone could have easily touched the live conductors inside and been seriously injured or even killed.

“All electrical work must be thoroughly and methodically checked. There is no place for cutting corners when the stakes are so high.”

According to facts presented by Building and Energy, Aiden was employed by ADCO Electrics to inspect and test electrical work carried out at the newly constructed house including lighting, power circuits and a switchboard. Aiden completed and signed a checklist verifying he had visually inspected the electrical installation and certified that the work complied with the required electrical safety standards.

However, a Western Power electrical inspector later noted a hole in the lounge room wall where a light switch cover should have been installed. Inside was a 240V exposed and energised cable connected to the lighting circuit. Contact with live electrical parts at this voltage could have caused a fatal electric shock.