'Cunning' construction boss jailed

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

A "cunning" construction site boss who showed a "callous disregard" for safety that led to a near-fatal accident has been jailed for six months and ordered to pay £90,000 compensation to a severely injured worker.

Businessman Shah Nawaz Pola had denied being responsible for a Bradford building site where, in November 2005, migrant worker Dusan Dudi suffered what a hospital consultant described as "non-survivable" head injuries after a concrete lintel struck him. But after a two-week trial at Bradford Crown Court, Pola was convicted of three charges of breaching health and safety legislation.

On 7 August, Judge Peter Benson jailed Pola for contravening the requirements of a Prohibition Notice. He also fined him £750 under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the same under Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations, and ordered him to pay Dudi £90,000 in compensation.

The court heard that Dudi, who has now returned home to Slovakia, was one of several migrant workers Pola had paid £30 a day to work on a house extension project at 107 Allerton Road in Bradford. Pola had failed to provide any proper scaffolding, personal protective equipment or training on the site.

It is thought that Dudi was working from an improvised working platform about 3.5m high when part of a wall collapsed, and he fell to the ground. The falling concrete blocks and bricks then landed on his head. Remarkably, he survived after his life-support machine was switched off, but it is unlikely that he will ever work again and he requires constant care.

Sentencing Pola, Judge Benson called him a "very capable, clever and cunning individual" who was "completely ruthless" about pursuing his own aims at the expense of those to whom he had a duty of care.

He told Pola: "This was stunning callousness and insensitivity on your part. You had no concern about their safety - all you were concerned about was getting the job done and getting it done as cheaply as possible. You showed a callous disregard for the safety of your workers."

Pola maintains he is innocent and has lodged an appeal against the conviction.