Developer fined £75,000 for engineer death

A London-based development company has been fined £75,000 following the death of a heating engineer at one of its developments in October 2000.

Cherren III, of Brook Street, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in advance of a prosecution at Southwark crown court in July.

The court heard that Mark Butler, from Woking, Surrey, was measuring for a heating installation at a Fitzroy Square development when the accident happened.

He had climbed an unguarded ladder to a half platform on the ground floor but fell about 2.4m into a basement. Butler died 12 days later due to his injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that Cherren III, the principle contractor on the site, had failed to carry out a risk assessment for the area where Butler was working. The half platform that Butler fell from had no edge protection and had not been designated as an exclusion zone.

Michael La Rose, HSE inspector responsible for leading the investigation, said: “This is the type of incident that needs to be prevented if the construction industry is to improve its safety record. As the figures published today indicate, falls from height still account for over half of all fatalities in construction.”

The company was also ordered to pay costs of £25,000.