Contractor guilty of health and safety failings (From This Is Cheshire)

Contractor guilty of health and safety failings

1:43pm Friday 13th October 2006

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A CONTRACTOR has been found guilty of a catalogue of health and safety errors after a worker fell to his death.

Warrington Crown Court heard David Moran, aged 31, had no demolition or construction qualifications for the cash-in hand job at Chesford Grange, Woolston, where he was killed in September 2002.

He died after falling eight feet through a fragile roof he had been instructed to work on.

On Friday, four years after the tragedy, Bernard O'Sullivan, then owner of the site's main contractor Excavation and Contracting (UK) Ltd, was found guilty of failing to ensure non-employees were not exposed to health and safety risks.

Glyn Hines, site foreman and co-accused, was cleared after the 12 jurors failed to deliver a verdict in the two-week trial.

Nic Rigby, the health and safety inspector who led the investigation, said: "This result will make building contractors and sub-contractors reconsider there position in terms of health and safety risks.

"It should send the message out to contractors that they have a responsibility on their sites not only to their employees but to their sub-contractors' employees too."

Four other parties - Excavation and Contracting (UK) Ltd, Elmsgold Haulage Ltd, Dennis O'Connor and John McSweeney - have all pleaded guilty to a total of seven health and safety breaches on the site.

Judge Teague QC said: "There will be substantial fines on all those found guilty."

O'Sullivan and the other guilty parties will be sentenced on December 18 at Warrington Crown Court.

To read the exclusive interview with the victim's father, buy the Warrington Guardian on Thursday.

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