A businessman’s trial over charges including putting the occupants of an Angus house at risk of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning due to a badly-fitted stove has gone “back to square one” after the accused’s lawyer withdrew from the case.
Fife man Justin Jackson’s solicitor was given leave by a sheriff at Forfar to step away from the matter as a result of difficulties encountered in defending the 47-year-old Fife accused on a charge relating to faulty fitting of a stove at a property in Edzell, and an allegation of making a misleading website statement in regard to a Perth-based business.
Jackson, of Whinpark Place, Newburgh had been due to face trial next month over what was described by solicitor Brian Bell as a matter with a “degree of complexity”.
The complaint alleges Jackson knowingly or recklessly engaged in a practice which contravened professional diligence while fitting a stove at a property in North Esk Road, Edzell between June 18 and July 28 2016.
He is charged with failing to provide a carbon monoxide detection system and also of putting the occupants at risk of poisoning by failing to secure the joint where a flexible flue liner met the chimney cowl.
His is also accused of fitting flue pipes and a liner with a diameter less than that of the stove outlet, failing to install an air vent or provide adequate air gaps around the stove, and failing to provide a label or other indelibly marked sign with information required to alert future workmen to the specification of the installed system.
Jackson also denies that, being a trader at the time, on August 25 2016 at a house in Hill Terrace, Arbroath and elsewhere, that he made a misleading statement on his website that Stove Safe was located in Perth, knowing that was false. He is also accused of making a further misleading claim on his website that services were provided by “a team of HETAS qualified installers with over 15 years’ experience”, knowing that claim to be false.
Mr Bell told Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown at Forfar: “He is adhering to his not guilty plea, but I am seeking to withdraw from representing Mr Jackson.
“The trial is scheduled for February 19 and in the event that Mr Jackson engages a new solicitor I think it may be difficult to fully instruct them in a case which has a degree of complexity.”
Sheriff Martin-Brown said the latest development had potentially put the case “back to square one” and set a further diet in the case for January 30.
The accused was present in court and told Sheriff Martin-Brown he would take immediate steps to seek fresh legal representation.
