Liverpool developer fined £100k after worker crushed to death

Jakub Fischer was left trapped by a collapsed section of wall

A property developer has been fined £100,000 and a director of a building firm handed a suspended prison sentence after a labourer was crushed to death.

Self-employed labourer Jakub Fischer was tasked by Thorndyke Developments Ltd to demolish a wall dividing two houses in Liverpool in 2019.

He was found dead under a collapsed section of a wall.

Thorndyke and David Hartley, director of North West Facilities Ltd, admitted breaches to construction regulations.

Mr Fischer was hired as a sub-contractor by North West Facilities Ltd to work on a house refurbishment project for Thorndyke on Mansell Road, Liverpool, in 2019, magistrates in Wirral heard.

The 41-year-old, who was originally from the Czech Republic, was asked to demolish a rear yard wall on 5 June.

While other workers left the site at 15:30 BST, a neighbour saw Mr Fischer trapped between an outer kitchen wall and a collapsed section of the yard wall at about 17:40, the court heard.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation found the demolition work was not planned or accounted for in the construction phase plan, no risk assessment or method statement was provided, and Mr Fischer was not trained to carry out safe demolitions.

There was also a lack of supervision as the system of work implemented by Thorndyke and North West Facilities prohibited non-English-speaking workers from carrying out demolitions, the HSE said.

Thorndyke Developments Limited, of Rodney Street, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £8,400 in costs.

Mr Hartley, of Trearddur Road in Holyhead, Anglesey, also admitted contravening sections of the act and was sentenced to 26 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to pay £5,836 in costs.

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