Firm fined £1 over death of satellite TV engineer Noel Corbin
Published: 13 August 2011
A SATELLITE TV installation firm which admitted a breach in health and safety rules in relation to the death of a worker killed while fixing a dish on a house in Belsize Park has been fined £1.
Noel Corbin, 29, suffered fatal head injuries after falling from a roof in February 2008. The company he was working for Foxtel Limited pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety At Work Act (1974) at the Old Bailey. It is no longer trading and has no assets, leading the court to issue the £1 fine. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which brought the prosecution to court said it could not comment on the size of the financial penalty.
The court had heard that Mr Corbin, from Croydon, was not given suitable safety equipment before taking on the work at the four storey house in Belsize Park Gardens. The company had also not checked references from Mr Corbin's previous employers or looked at training certificates.
Charles Linfoot, HSE inspector, said: "Mr Corbin's death has had a devastating effect on his family made all the more tragic by the incident was easily preventable. Owing to the foreseeable risk of falling and the lack of suitable access equipment, the work should have been cancelled. Foxtel should have carried out a full site-specific risk assessment, planning and organising the work to be executed in a safe manner. It is not acceptable to simply delegate health and safety duties to employees without adequate instruction, training, monitoring or supervision."
He added: "I hope the conviction of Foxtel Ltd sends a clear message to other installation companies in London and elsewhere that where access to residential properties from height is required, companies are ultimately responsible for carrying out a full site-specific risk assessment."
Comments
£1 fine
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2011-08-19 23:37.This judgement is an insult, fining the company just £1 when someone has lost a life because of their breaches of health and safety law. The company folded a few months before the court case to avoid getting penalised. I presume they are still trading again now under a different name. It seems parking on a yellow line is more serious - the fine is 59 times more! The law is a joke if they let them get away with this.
Noel Corbin's death
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2011-08-16 22:29.The safety inspector's comment about the effect of the judgement is clearly contradicted by the insult of the penalty. The conviction with the non-penalty sends a very clear message - ignore health and safety law.
obscenity of broadcasters penalty in wrongful death culpability.
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2011-08-14 00:46.A pound suit is obscene.
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