Mr James Happs

Mr James Happs is a certificated Consultant Automotive Fire and Theft Investigation Engineer, with an MSc with distinction in Fire Investigation with GBB UK.

James has over ten years experience, in determined the cause and origin of fire damage sustained to vehicles including cars, vans, HGVs, plant and farm equipment.

As well as fire investigation, James’ expertise covers mechanical failure investigation, collision damage cost assessment, vehicle valuations and theft investigation, including recovered vehicle analysis and key interrogation.

As part of his role, he routinely completes fully intrusive physical examinations of vehicles to establish the cause and origin of fire or method / consistency of theft and assesses if the damage sustained is consistent with the reported circumstances.

He is an IMI accredited Vehicle Damage Assessor and Electric Vehicle Technician. He is also an appropriately qualified person to categorise vehicle salvage.

In 2017 he completed a Master’s Degree in Fire Scene Investigation at the University of Central Lancashire. This included the principles of fire, fire scene investigation, health & safety, computational fluid dynamics and the process of the legal system. James has given evidence in court for civil proceedings.

Engineering Technician (EngTech), Certificated Automotive Engineer (CAE), City & Guilds 398 Vehicle Body Competencies level 1-3 (Distinction), please see his CV for a full list of relevant qualifications.

Member of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), Member of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE), Associate of the Institute of Automotive Engineering Assessors (IAEA) and an Associate of the United Kingdom Association of Fire Investigators (UK-AFI). In 1996 he became a Certificated Automotive Engineer (CAE) with the IMI and in 2011 he was registered with the Engineering Council as an Engineering Technician (EngTech).