A UK commercial diver who had carried out only a fraction of the dives necessary to enrol on a costly saturation-diving course fabricated nearly 80 additional dives to qualify – while another had imaginary dives stamped and signed in his log-book by a dive-company director.
Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigators have slammed the two Portsmouth divers and the director for making false claims of diving experience that they say could have endangered not only their own but other divers’ lives.
After being cautioned by the police for fraud by false representation, the unnamed divers have now had their diving qualifications withdrawn.
HSE was informed last December that the divers might have obtained their saturation-diving qualifications without having gained the necessary prior diving experience. Both were working for North Sea contractors, and there was concern that their inexperience could result in an offshore diving incident.
Two schools to check
Working alongside Hampshire Police’s fraud investigation team, HSE contacted the only two commercial dive-schools in the world that now provide the relevant sat-diving or closed-bell qualification: INPP in the south of France and Australia’s Commercial Dive Academy.
The schools gave the investigators details of the prior dives the two divers had claimed to enrol on their courses. These were checked against the records of several UK diving contractors, who are obliged by law to maintain records of individual dives, including depths and times, for at least two years.
When one company was unable to provide such records, the investigators visited the site of the claimed dives and established with the local harbourmaster that they had not taken place.
To demonstrate that he had carried out 20 dives to depths of more than 15m, the diver had forged 10 dives at this location, with the director of the diving company colluding by fraudulently stamping and signing his logbook.
The other sanctioned diver had declared to the dive-school that he had carried out 106 dives, 26 of these deeper than 15m – but the only records found by the HSE indicated that he had carried out a mere 28 dives, only one of them deeper than 15m.
£15,000 courses
The three individuals all admitted to making fraudulent logbook entries.
“You need diving experience to become a qualified closed-bell diver and making it up could put your life and other divers at risk,” said HSE diving inspector Phil Crombie. “The police cautions issued meant that we were able to have the qualifications withdrawn quickly by the relevant authorities.
“Closed-bell courses cost over £15,000 for a diver – and these divers have ended up losing that without gaining a qualification. It’s just fortunate that they weren’t involved in any accident or incident.”
Divers enrolling on closed-bell courses require at least 100 dives and 100 hours of diving work experience once qualified as a surface-supplied diver. No dives shallower than 6m are counted, and at least 20 dives must be deeper than 15m.
“The men involved in this case did not have the requisite experience to undertake dive work of this nature, posing a serious risk of harm to themselves,” said Hampshire Police PC Alam Mahmmued. “This is in addition to their actions, which clearly amounted to criminal offences.
“We take any aspect of fraud seriously and we were pleased to collaborate with HSE to achieve a suitable outcome in this case. We hope this will in turn reduce the likelihood of any further offending. If offending continues, then these individuals face severe consequences in the criminal courts.”
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