A GWYNEDD caravan and motorhome distributer has been ordered to pay £11,211 for supplying a dangerous motorhome and committing an offence under the General Product Safety Regulations.

On June 22, magistrates found Evans Caravan and Camping Ltd, who operate from two locations in Gwynedd (Penrhyndeudraeth and Chwilog) had been negligent and that the vehicle was potentially dangerous.

Evans Caravans Ltd was fined £8,000, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £190 and costs of £3,021.

The case was brought by Gwynedd Council’s Public Protection Service, after a member of the public highlighted concerns about gas and electrical installation in a motorhome purchased from Evans Caravans Ltd on August 14, 2020.

A gas installation inspection report was undertaken on the motorhome by Gas Safe Register.

And a significant number of at-risk defects were identified including the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) compartment being unsealed, the LPG compartment having inadequate ventilation, and exposed electrical connections.

Unsatisfactory ventilation from gas appliances was found in the habitable area, the gas hob/grill had not been fitted with a flame supervision device on each burner, and the gas fridge was found to have an unsatisfactory flue, which was not approved by the manufacturer.

An electrical assessment of the motorhome also considered the installation to be unsafe and dangerous.

The electrical installation was in close proximity to the gas supply locker, the consumer unit had not been secured in place, with possible access to live terminals within the consumer unit, electrical cables were not adequately secured and had no strain protection, a socket was incorrectly wired, and the leisure battery had no vent for hydrogen gas.

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Councillor Dafydd Meurig, the environment department’s cabinet member for Gwynedd Council, said: “As a council, we have a duty to protect the safety of Gwynedd residents.

“Consumers should be able to have confidence that any product they purchase is considered safe.

“We will not hesitate to take necessary action against businesses who irresponsibly neglect their trading obligations by failing to supply goods to the required standard and unnecessarily putting people in danger.”

We took this motorhome as part exchange. The previous owners (Mr. Morris) had built this motorhome themselves. They had a gas exchange done, had it been tested 8-9 years ago and they had no issue.

In response to this, Evans Caravan and Camping said they feel Gwynedd Council has been unfair in not telling the full story, in that they did not mention the full refund they gave the lady who bought the motorhome.

An Evans Caravan and Camping spokesperson said: “We sold the motorhome to a lady and gave her three months’ warranty.

“She had it for roughly nine months, during which time we never had any correspondence from her; then suddenly, out of the blue, we had a Trading Standards letter. She said that she had a few issues.

“We told Trading Standards that she had not once ever contacted us to report any issues during the time of the warranty.

“Naturally, we contacted her and asked her what she would like to do.

“Her reply was that she no longer wanted the motorhome as it had a few issues and was not really what she wanted anymore.

“As we put our customer’s happiness first, we offered her two options: to repair any issues, or a full refund.

“She chose a full refund and she was very happy. However, in the meantime, Trading Standards took us to court and fined us.

“We feel that this (Gwynedd Council story) was unfair towards us as it does not state that we gave the lady an instant refund.

“If there is an issue with anything we sell, we listen to our client’s issues and deal with them politely and fairly, in a timely manner.

“This can be seen by the high amount of positive reviews across many platforms and repeat customers we have.

“As a leading motorhome and caravan company in North Wales, we sell lots of caravans and motorhomes and this type of issue is very rare.

“We have been a limited company since 2008 and, as we stated, we don’t feel the full story was told.

“The previous owners saw this was in court and wrote a letter saying that they were shocked.”

“They said: ‘We bought the van a few years ago (which was low-mileage) in good condition, which was converted by us. We part-exchanged it for a caravan two years ago. We had no problems and no concerns with the workings of the van. Very happy with the caravan we bought from Evans Caravans. Found them to be very helpful and after-sales were good’.”