A construction client has been handed a suspended prison sentence after a worker was found dead on a building site in London.
Moses Meisels received a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs City of London Magistrates Court due to his role in the incident.
The Metropolitan Police discovered the man’s body at the site of a synagogue development at Upper Clapton Road, in Hackney, in December 2018.
Although the worker had died as a result of natural causes, subsequent inspections by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed multiple life-threatening safety failures at the site.
Moses Meisels was overseeing major structural work to enlarge the synagogue, but he repeatedly ignored warnings about dangerous practices – putting construction workers at serious risk of fatal falls.
Following the discovery of the man’s body, HSE inspectors conducted four separate visits in a five-month period, where they uncovered a catalogue of serious failures including:
Workers operating on the roof beyond the protection of scaffolding edge barriers
Large, unprotected holes in the ground floor creating fall risks into the basement below
A single unsecured ladder as the only access to the first floor, which didn’t extend far enough to provide a safe handhold
Construction waste dangerously stacked in the front garden
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Regulation 2 defines a client as “any person for whom a project is carried out”. HSE guidance states that commercial clients have a crucial influence over how projects are run, including the management of health and safety risks. Commercial clients must make suitable arrangements for managing their project, enabling those carrying it out to manage health and safety risks in a proportionate way.
At City of London Magistrates Court, Meisels of Gilda Crescent, Stoke Newington, pleaded guilty to breaching Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. He received a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs.
HSE inspector David King said: “It is essential that clients must make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including the allocation of sufficient time and other resources.
“Clients should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action them if fail to ensure their construction projects meet the required standards.”
