A BOTCHED repair of a leaking gas pipe sparked an alert in Worcester.

Malcolm Thompson, of Himbleton Road, St John’s, believes a fencing contractor employed by a neighbour may have cut through a gas pipe running beneath the front drive of his home.

Someone then made a slapdash repair and covered it over.

The leaking plastic gas pipe was only discovered by Mr Thompson when he smelled gas in January, six months after the fencing work was finished.

Workers from National Grid were called out and they found that a gas pipe directly beneath a fencepost’s concrete footings had been cut in two places.

A botched repair on the pipe had been made with a cut-away length of larger pipe packed with black silicone and fitted around the damaged section.

The Health and Safety Executive investigated but has been unable to find out who caused the damage.

Mr Thompson, who is a sculptor, said: “People have a duty of care to their neighbours to ensure the work is right.”

A spokeswoman for National Grid said: “It was a small escape, outside the property.

“In this case the escape was not serious.”

Gas workers found nothing to suggest how the damage had been caused.