Construction Firms Fined £1.1m After Labourer Is Buried Alive on Site

Two construction companies have been ordered to pay fines totalling £1.1million following the death of a Romanian labourer who was buried alive when a 10ft trench collapsed around him.

Gheorghita Arsene, 33, had been digging the ten-foot-deep pit by hand with a pick and shovel at a care home in Banstead, Surrey, when the trench walls gave way in what was described as a “barely believable” incident on June 24, 2020.

The labourer was engulfed by tonnes of soil after the sides of the excavation were not properly supported, allowing the ground to cave in and trap him beneath the earth.

His co-workers made frantic attempts to save him, digging with their bare hands as they tried to clear debris from around his face.

Firefighters and ambulance crews were called to the site, but paramedics struggled to resuscitate him because of the crushing weight of the soil and the difficulty of freeing him from the collapsed trench.

It was not possible to carry out chest compressions as they could not get Mr Arsene out of the trench. 

He was pronounced dead at the scene at 2.44pm, an hour after the accident happened. The excavation was so unsafe that the body could not be removed until the following morning. 

The site manager, 54-year-old Peter Wraith, was earlier cleared by an Old Bailey jury of manslaughter by gross negligence, while his assistant Gregory Peake, 51, was also cleared of breaching health and safety regulations. 

The jury had failed to reach a verdict on subcontractor Anthony O’Connor, 42 – who denied the manslaughter of Mr Arsene by gross negligence – after 73 hours and 28 minutes of jury deliberations.

O’Connor admitted failing to ensure Mr Arsene’s safety under Health and Safety regulations after Judge Judy Khan indicated she would not pass a custodial sentence and the manslaughter charge was dropped. 

But both Wraith and O’Connor’s companies, the specialist care home builder Appledorn, and subcontractor T Vaughan Limited (TVL), were all convicted of failing to ensure Mr Arsene’s safety by unanimous verdicts. 

Wraith was a boss at Appledorn, who had won the contract to build a new facility at Woodstown House in Park Road, Banstead. 

O’Connor was a manager at a subcontractor for TVL, who had been hired to carry out ground work at the site and dig the trench. 

The offending companies have now been fined a total of more than £1.15million over the tragedy, which the ruling judge called ‘entirely avoidable’. 

Sentencing O’Connor to 10 months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, Judge Khan said: ‘You did nothing to stop the work…even though it was not being carried out safely.

‘I’m satisfied you had actual foresight of the offending, but risk was still taken. There was a high likelihood of death. A number of workers were exposed to a risk of harm. 

‘The offence was a significant cause of actual harm.’

She added: ‘You did not ensure that a proper risk assessment or method statement was in place prior to the excavations taking place, you did not ensure that the trenches were supported or battered back, and you did nothing to stop the work continuing on June 24, although it was obvious to you that it was not being carried out safely.’ 

Fining Appledorn £500,000, Judge Khan said: ‘There was serious and systemic failure within the organisation to address health and safety. 

‘I’m satisfied the failure to put safe working conditions in place was motivated by a desire to get the work done quickly and cheaply.’ 

The judge also found there was ‘deliberate concealment’ and limited mitigation. 

Fining TVL £650,000 and ordering them to pay £40,000 in costs, Judge Khan said she was satisfied the company had health and safety systems in place but that they were not adhered to. 

The judge said: ‘At its most senior level, the company has demonstrated a very responsible approach. This offence was not symptomatic of TVL’s approach – it was an outlier.’

She also credited the company for fully cooperating with the police probe. 

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During the three-month trial, jurors heard that by June 24, 2020 most of the work had been completed, but there was a problem with the drainage pipes at the site which meant they would have to be replaced. 

The trench was so narrow that there was only enough room for one man to dig at a time, and Mr Arsene had been taking it in turns with another employee, Daniel Plitan, when the tragedy happened. 

Prosecutor John McGuinness said: ‘At the time of the accident, Mr Arsene was working at the bottom of the trench with a shovel and a pickaxe which he had been using to clear away soil from around the damaged pipe when, without warning, one or more of the sides of the trench collapsed.

‘Victor Lungu, who was in the digger, saw the trench starting to collapse and shouted to Mr Arsene, who looked up. 

‘Mr Arsene reacted, but was only able to take one or two steps to try to get out of the trench before the soil fell and almost completely covered him. 

‘Lungu got out of the digger and rushed down to where Mr Arsene was in the trench. He shouted to him but there was no response and he ran off to get help. 

‘Desperate attempts were made by those there to get Mr Arsene out from under the soil that was covering him. 

‘They managed to move away enough soil to expose his face and upper body, but he was unresponsive to all attempts to revive him. 

‘Shovels were of limited use and some rescue personnel had to try and dig him out by hand. 

‘While they were doing this, more soil was falling into the trench. The ground around the trench was boggy and unstable.’ 

At 2.44pm, more than an hour after the accident had happened, a doctor who had arrived by air ambulance pronounced Mr Arsene dead at the scene. 

Mr McGuinness said it ‘was entirely foreseeable that the sides of the trench might collapse’. 

The excavation was so unsafe that the body could not be removed until the following morning. 

A post-mortem found the labourer had died from compression and suffocation. 

The prosecutor continued: ‘Despite the obvious risk that the walls of an excavated trench to this depth would collapse, and the obvious risk of death to anyone who was working at the bottom of such a trench, all the sides of the trench that George was working in were completely unsupported and not a single step or measure had been taken to prevent the risk of collapse and of death.’ 

He added: ‘There will be evidence that it has been known for many years in the construction industry that the risk of a trench of this type collapsing is extreme, and therefore those who work on sites such as this one have been made aware of the types of measures that can be taken to prevent such collapses.’ 

The court heard how if those measures had been taken, Mr Arsene would not have died. 

‘The prosecution suggest it is barely believable that absolutely nothing was done,’ Mr McGuinness said. 

‘It is astonishing there was no risk assessment and no method statement for the deep trench excavation work that led to the accident here. 

‘Neither Appledorn nor TVL gave any thought in advance to the safety of two men working in the bottom of a trench, the sides of which were liable to collapse at any moment – and eventually did.’ 

In a victim impact statement, Mr Arsene’s mother Ienuta said she had warned her son not to go in the trench and revealed that her husband had died from a heart attack in the months that followed. 

She said: ‘Gheorghita was a good man who worked hard and achieved everything through his hard work, and he sought to support his family. 

‘I have a depression that is eating me away and a constant feeling of loneliness.  Everyone in the family was devastated by Gheorghita’s death.’ 

Wraith, from Grimsby, and O’Connor, from Romford, east London, denied gross negligence manslaughter. 

TVL and Appledorn denied corporate failings under the Health and Safety at Work Act. 

Peake, from Bromley, south London, denied two charges of breaching Health and Safety regulations.