TV documentary used to convict firm of health and safety offences

Steve JohnsNo CommentsNews

Footage filmed for a TV documentary about medics has been used to help secure a conviction against a company carrying out construction work after the death of a 25-year-old.

Regentford Ltd, of Hackney, was yesterday fined £250,000 after being convicted of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, following an eight-day trial at Croydon Crown Court. It was also ordered to pay costs of £71,603.01.

The HSE investigated the death of employee, Balwinder Kumar (also known as Binder Singh) on 24 February 2005. A mason and plasterer, Mr Kumar was re-pointing brickwork when he fell from scaffolding at the rear of a building in Croydon. He suffered severe head injuries in the first storey fall, was taken to King’s College Hospital and died on 1 March 2005.

When the HSE went to investigate, the scaffolding Mr Kumar had been standing on had been removed. During the investigation it emerged that a BBC television crew filming the documentary ‘Trauma’, had been accompanying the medical staff who attended the site, and the HSE obtained footage showing scaffolding in very poor condition with insufficient guard rails and an inadequate working platform.

The HSE investigation showed that health and safety on the site had not been managed appropriately by Regentford Ltd. There was no one in effective control of health and safety on the site.

HSE Inspector, Nigel Evans, said:

“The footage from the documentary crew showed that the scaffolding was totally inadequate for the job in hand. We will use all evidence at our disposal to prosecute employers who fail to manage health and safety risks properly. Mr Kumar needlessly lost his life on a small construction site, and it is these smaller sites where a significant proportion of fatalities in the industry occur each year.

“The message is simple: whatever the size of company or site, you have exactly the same responsibility to make sure employees have a safe and healthy working environment – and we can and will prosecute if these duties are neglected.”