What went wrong at the car washes?
Epco Energy Solutions Limited, based in Eccles (Manchester, United Kingdom), supplied false electrical safety certificates to two hand car washes in Runcorn (Cheshire, United Kingdom): Super Hand Car Wash on Halton Road and Top Star Hand Car Wash on Bridge Street. According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the certificates stated that the electrical installations at both sites were safe, when they were not. HSE’s enforcement action forced both businesses to stop work immediately. A later visit found that the electrical systems at both sites were still dangerous.
The investigation, which HSE carried out together with Cheshire Police, Trading Standards and the immigration service, revealed that the certificates did not match the actual situation: a specialist electrical inspector from HSE found that the data did not correspond with the installations on site. The certificates bore the electronic signature of Mohammed Naeem, Epco’s sole director. The company was a member of NICEIC at the time, a UK certification body for electrical contractors.
According to HSE inspector Rose Leese-Weller, car wash owners must keep their electrical installations safe, precisely because of the close relationship between water and electricity in this type of business. Installations must be safe to use and fit for purpose, to prevent serious injury or electrocution. In her view, the two car washes in Runcorn were dangerous to both workers and members of the public.
What sanction did the court impose?
On 2 September 2026, following a trial, Warrington Magistrates’ Court found Epco Energy Solutions Limited guilty of breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which requires employers to conduct their undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment who may be affected by it are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. On 22 October 2026, the same court fined the company £20,000, plus £15,239 in costs. Leese-Weller emphasised that electrical installations at all workplaces must be maintained in a safe condition.
Context
In the United Kingdom, the duty to maintain electrical installations stems from the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. Regulation 4(2) of those regulations states that, as may be necessary to prevent danger, electrical systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger. A periodic inspection, in the United Kingdom often recorded in an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), is in practice the standard means of demonstrating compliance with that maintenance duty. A false certificate therefore gives the customer a false sense of assurance about precisely that obligation.
The case underlines for EHS professionals worldwide that the reliability of inspection certificates is just as important as the technical condition of an installation itself: in this case, a conviction followed even though no accident had occurred. Anyone outsourcing inspections would do well to check that the findings on the certificate match the installation on site.
Source: Company fined for providing false electrical safety certificates for car washes, 27 October 2026
Additional research: The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, Regulation 4
