Firm fined £450k and director narrowly avoids jail after labourer crushed to death
A company has been fined £450,000 and the firm’s director has received a suspended prison sentence after a labourer was crushed to death at a construction site.
Simon Briggs, 61, principal director of Stonehurst Estates Ltd, was today sentenced to 23 weeks behind bars, suspended for 18 months, for health and safety offences following the death of Oleksander Rudyy.
The 49-year-old died at a development site in Hockley, Birmingham, on May 8, 2019.
Site foreman, Vasyl Bychkov, 45, was also sentenced to 130 hours of unpaid work after previously pleading guilty to taking responsible care of the health and safety of others at the site.
Stonehurst Estates Ltd was also fined £450,000 after being guilty of corporate manslaughter and health and health and safety offences. The firm was also ordered to pay costs of £167,601.
The death happened as Mr Rudyy had been removing supporting metal bars with an angle grinder as part of a large-scale renovation project involving three bordering sites when the structure collapsed.
He was not aware that the metal bars played a crucial role in supporting the structure. The court was told Stonehurst Estates Ltd had worked on the sensitive structure without a proper plan and sequence in place, despite safety measures being known and readily available to the company.
It was found that none of the men working on the site, including Bychkov, who was supervising at the time, had any expertise in demolition work, and there was no risk assessment or safe system of work in place for the task that Mr Rudyy was undertaking.
The standing of care granted to Mr Rudyy was described as 'woeful' by a Health and Safety executive expert.
The prosecution followed an investigation by West Midlands Police and the HSE.
Talking about the incident, Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "Although he was not onsite when this tragedy took place, as director of Stonehurst Estates, Simon Briggs owed a duty of care to Mr Rudyy for any work carried out.
"He and his company failed to plan and carry out the demolition safely, which led to tragic consequences where a man needlessly lost his life.
"As site manager on the day in question, Vasyl Bychkov, who had no expertise in demolition, asked Mr Rudyy to undertake a task that lacking sufficient expertise, was inherently dangerous. He failed to take reasonable care of the health and safety of labourers working at the site.
"Our thoughts remain with Mr Rudyy’s family and friends at this time."
