United States. A Detroit engineer was sentenced to probation for one year and fined $5,000 for promoting the R-22 refrigerant and putting it up for sale to unauthorized buyers from the classifieds website Craigslist.
Douglas Mertz, 38, a certified refrigeration and air conditioning engineer, was convicted before a U.S. District Judge for trying to sell the product to buyers who did not have a refrigerant handling certificate. Mertz was caught selling 10 bottles of R-22 to an undercover EPA agent.
The ad read, "If you can't get R-22 on your own, there is no EPA card or permit, we can do business," the Detroit Free Press reported.
"It is a serious crime to sell R-22 or other ozone-depleting refrigerants to people who have not been trained to properly handle these substances. In this case, the defendant not only made this illegal sale, he went further and created a false document to cover himself," EPA Special Agent Ashe Randall said.
As part of his conviction, Mertz was required to waive his EPA certification in refrigerant handling.
