Dangerous socket found and replaced

On a recent safety check while testing the mains outlets I had a problem inserting my 13A Socket Tester.

There was clearly no connections happening when I pushed the tester into the socket – it just fell out.

Suspecting something bad was happening behind the facia plate I isolated the socket at the consumer unit and unscrewed the plate from the wall. This is what I found.

It seems apparent that the connector unit failed around the small screws; see top right of photo. Once these had failed no plug would connect to the unit and more importantly inserting a plug could have caused a short circuit as mains parts were floating around.

The stakeholder assured me the socket had not been used for several years, but the point is that the socket was very dangerous and had somebody pushed a plug into the socket a short could have happened or, more dangerously, the earth pin of the plug could have made contact with the live line.

As part of our safety check I replaced the socket and re-tested after the power was re-applied.