Jailed Site Manager Tried to Blame Worker for his own Death

Posted on September 7, 2016

A jailed site manager who was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following a fatal fall on his site, tried to blame the incident on the victim.

Faruk Patel told police that workers at the Leicester site could take care of themselves and were aware of the dangers. Adding that Tasadaq Ur-Rehman was responsible for his own death. Ur-Rehman was hired on a casual basis to fit doors and windows at the site on 24th and 25th January 2015. On the first day, while working on a first floor flat roof, he fell 3 metres through an open skylight. Sustaining severe head injuries resulting in his death four days later.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Leicester police found various safety failings. These included a lack of guarding around ceiling openings on the first and second floors. Patel, from Leicester, had no experience of managing construction sites. He failed to provide scaffolding in the area where the windows were to be fitted.

On 26 January 2015, two days after the fatal incident, the HSE issued Patel with a prohibition notice halting all work at height. But inspections on subsequent visits found that work had continued. When police visited the site on 10 February 2015, the notice had again been breached. Patel was charged with gross negligence manslaughter.

In December 2015, Patel had already pleaded guilty to breaching s3 (2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for twice breaching a prohibition notice, but denied his negligence amounted to manslaughter. He was found guilty in July and was jailed for 30 months for manslaughter, to run concurrently with an eight-month term for the health and safety offences.

Justice John Saunders said: “It seems the defendant had no idea of the responsibilities he had for maintaining the safety of the site.”