A JUDGE has criticised the ‘lamentable’ working conditions which resulted in a father dying before his son’s eyes.

Alaister Copland, of Queens Drive, Moreton, was ordered to pay £12,420 in fines and compensation after admitting responsibility for illegal conditions, which resulted in the death of Stephen Ford.

Judge Roger Jarvis told the 64-year-old that if the incident had happened a few months later, legislation that has since come into force would have meant he would almost certainly have gone to prison.

Mr Ford, 50, was killed when he was working with his son Jamie Ford on private property in Winterborne Houghton, near Blandford on November 15, 2008. They had been demolishing a barn when debris fell on Mr Ford.

Dorchester Crown Court was told the pair had been employed by the agency Rubicon People and were working under Copland’s trading company Do It Al.

Prosecutor Ian Dixey told the court there were no gloves, goggles or hard hats for workers and that Copland was not covered by insurance at the time of the death.

He said: “A ladder had been placed on a pile of rubble and Stephen and Jamie pulled the cob wall down into the space they were in.

“Jamie was using a hammer drill and Stephen was clearing rubble from the ground. A large piece of cob about a foot square came away from the wall and fell straight down.

“Jamie saw his father lying on the rubble on his back with blood coming from his nose, mouth and ears and saw there was a depression in his head where he had been struck.”

Mr Ford was pronounced dead at the scene.

The court heard Copland’s son Gary Copland was also put at risk while taking down the roof of the barn using a ‘wholly dangerous system’.

Mr Dixey said there was no scaffolding and that he climbed on the roof to dismantle it without anything to prevent him falling over the edge.

In mitigation Charles Gabb said: “Copland did not intend to cut corners, it’s not that he didn’t care.

“He does feel greatly for what has happened.”

Mr Gabb said Copland had £50,000 of debts and a limited income. Copland pleaded guilty to failure to discharge duty under Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety Act 1974, namely that work carried out between October 1 and November 15, 2008 to undertake the demolition of a barn failed to ensure the safety of Gary Copland and Stephen Ford.

Judge Jarvis told Copland: “The execution of the work was lamentable. It’s unsurprising that an incident occurred and it’s a tragedy that Stephen Ford lost his life because of it. Not even any hard hats were available and the presence of a hard hat on Stephen Ford may have resulted in an entirely different result from the one that unfolded. An unsatisfactory and inadequate system was put in place to reduce your costs and maximise profit.”

Copland was ordered to pay £10,000 in fines, £25 victim surcharge and £2,390 compensation to Mr Ford’s family.

Speaking after the hearing, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, Helena Tinton, said: “This is a tragic case which clearly demonstrates the dangers of carrying out demolition work without suitable planning.

“There were multiple failings with this project. In addition to having no written plan for the demolition work, there was inadequate supervision and no-one on site wore head protection. This demolition work should have been carried out remotely using machinery with clearly marked exclusion zones in place.

“In failing to plan and carry out the demolition of this building in a safe manner a family has suffered the devastating consequences of a worker contributing to his own father’s death – an absolutely tragic situation.”

• Speaking after the case, Lloyd Banks, owner of the property where the accident happened and managing director of Rubicon People, pictured right, said: “This was a horrific incident and my thoughts are with the Ford family.

“As a private individual I hired Copland because he looked really credible on paper.

“I felt very let down that he was operating like this, I trusted him to run a safe site and he didn’t, as a result Stephen Ford lost his life – it’s just awful.”

He added: “After the accident I noticed that there were further health and safety issues which resulted in me personally firing [Copland].

“As a company Rubicon did everything we needed to do and are in no way liable.”

He said Rubicon had been given the all clear by the HSE.

Wounds 'unsurvivable'

As previously reported in the Echo an inquest into the death of Stephen Ford was held in May 2010.

The jury returned a verdict that the 50-year-old of Ringwood Road, Parkstone, died after being struck by a piece of wall at least 2ft long.

The narrative verdict read: “Stephen Ford died as a result of unsurvivable head and chest injuries as a result of an impact of a large piece of falling debris while engaged in demolishing a cob and flint wall.”

He was working with his son, Jamie when the tragedy happened. The pair were using a pneumatic drill to break down the wall.

Jamie was manning the drill at the time of the fatal accident.