PLUMBER Roy Hobbs just has to nip off and get a part, it has emerged.

32-year-old Hobbs, who is in the middle of fixing a boiler, fully expects the householder to continue paying his hourly rate while he fetches the unspecified component.

Hobbs said: “I shouldn’t be a minute, as long as they’ve got it in stock. Otherwise I might need to go to the other place, which is a bit further away.”

He denied allegations of previously using a similar ruse to park around the corner and sit in his van reading the paper for 70 minutes.

“That was obviously one of those dodgy plumbers. He’d even put my name on his van to conceal his identity.

“You have to be careful, some of these people really take the piss.”