Bricklayer death leads to site manager and employer paying £77,500 in court costs

Bricklayer Justin Gillman died back in 2010 after falling backwards through unguarded scaffolding while at work on a residential building in Skegness. Both the company he was working for, Chestnut Homes, and the site manager Peter Tute were prosecuted. Chestnut Homes was find £40,000, while Tute has to carry out 240 hours of community service. But that wasn't the end of it.

At the time of prosecution the question of costs was left up in the air by the judge. He has now made his decision, though. Both Chestnut Homes and Tute need to pay £77,500 in court costs, and they only have 28 days in which to pay.

While that may seem harsh, even impossible on the part of the individual, you have to remember that a man's life was lost and it was all due to a lack of safety on the site. The HSE discovered multiple safety failings including scaffolding built by untrained people without the proper safety features. Tute told these people to build it and inspected it concluding it was safe to use. With the guard rail missing, Gillman died after falling backwards off the scaffolding and having a band of 80 bricks fall on top of him.

A trained workforce is a safe workforce and this incident and death could have been easily avoided. Book your next training course today!

Source: Construction Enquirer