£250,000 penalty for rogue director

Prosecutions and Claims |
07.01.2008

A rogue company director whose lack of any safety provisions led to a migrant worker suffering multiple fractures when a two-tonne floor slab fell on him has been ordered to pay penalties totalling £250,000. A Croydon judge gave Vijay Vara, director of Gargreen and Euro's (London), six months two pay or he will face 22 months in jail.

Gargreen was the client and Euro's (London) the contractor on a construction project to build a 3125 square-metre warehouse by London's North Circular road at Brent.

Euro's (London) decided late in the construction process not to pour the concrete upper floor but to use precast Bison planks instead. The crane the company had hired was not large enough to lift the planks to the back of the building.

"They didn't plan the sequencing of the building project," explained HSE inspector Simon Hester, who suggested ways round the problem would have been to hire a bigger crane or to use a mini-crane on the parts of the floor plate already installed. Instead, he said, the workers were left to come up with their own makeshift system which involved what he called "methods I remember from my childhood days, watching cartoons about how they built the pyramids".

The crane was lifting the slabs onto the existing installed Bison planks at the front of the building and Szczcotka and three Polish co-workers were rolling them to the back on a series of metal tubes. They were using an Acrow style building prop to lever the planks into the floor frame. On 16 March 2005, when a slab became jammed in the frame Szczotka got underneath to attempt to free it and it fell on him, crushing his pelvis and legs. The father of three remains seriously disabled.

"There was no risk assessment, no method statement, no health and safety policies covering anything let alone this operation," said Hester, noting that the site had already been closed down by the HSE because the companies had not provided washing or toilet facilities for the workers. Szczotka had no training and had never worked on a construction site before. Euro's did not report the accident and denied it had taken place when the HSE started its investigation several weeks later.

Vijay Kara, who owns both Gargreen and Euro's (London)
On 18 December Croydon Crown Court judge Pratt fined Kara £99,900 for breaching Section 37 of the Health and safety at Work Act for his negligence as a director of the companies. He was ordered to pay £150,000 costs, reflecting the expense of a five-week trial for which the HSE had to engage two barristers.

Gargreen, as project client was fined £10,000 plus £10,000 costs under breaching Regulation 6 of CDM 1994 for having no planning supervisor. Euro's (London) was only fined £100 under Section 2(1) of the HSW Act since Vara had transferred its assets to another firm before the case was heard.