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A CONSTRUCTION company has been fined £100,000 after a worker fell four storeys from one of its platforms – leading to the amputation of his leg and other serious injuries.

Filipe de Abreu said his body had been ‘mutilated’ by the 40-foot fall onto a town street which had also severely affected his mental health.

CNR Construction, based in Brittany, appeared in the Royal Court yesterday after pleading guilty to breaching the health-and-safety law by failing to ensure that the platform had been properly installed. The concrete-specialist firm was subcontracted by Camerons on their project to build 165 apartments at Andium Homes’ Ann Court site.

On 2 February, Mr de Abreu, who worked for RS Reinforcements, was working on the platform when it collapsed. He was flown to Southampton General Hospital where he spent more than a month in intensive care, undergoing many weeks of operations and treatment. His injuries included a fractured pelvis, kidney problems and his left leg had to be amputated.

Crown Advocate Christopher Baglin, prosecuting, said that the incident has had a negative impact on both Mr de Abreu’s and his wife’s mental health.

Advocate Baglin, referring to a victim impact statement provided by Mr de Abreu, told the court: ‘He said his body feels mutilated, his mental health feels destroyed and he is not able to live in his flat. He says he has become jobless and homeless and has been living off short-term incapacity benefit and fears an uncertain future.’

CNR Construction were responsible for installing the platforms, which are an alternative to scaffolding. The court heard that the failed platform was installed on the side of the concrete formwork structure not in correspondence with drawings. In court, it was heard that contact should have been made with the firm’s head office for new drawings but this did not happen.

During an interview held with health-and-safety inspectors after the incident, the site manager said the project had been running two to three days behind schedule and he had felt under pressure.

Advocate Baglin said ‘the company had procedures in place but they were simply not followed’ which had left Mr de Abreu with ‘very serious and life-changing injuries’.

However, Advocate Christina Hall, defending, argued that the level of fine was excessive and that the culpability of the company should be classed as ‘low’.

She said the company had procedures in place to prevent an accident involving the platforms but these were simply not followed by their employee, who has since been sanctioned.

Advocate Hall added that CNR Construction had not experienced a serious health-and-safety incident since its establishment in 1969 and that the platforms in question are regarded as being safer than scaffolding and are in operation across many of its other construction sites.

However, owing to the pandemic and the associated border-related issues, some of CNR’s senior staff tasked with overseeing the installation of the platforms had not been present in the lead-up to the incident.

Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, delivering the sentence, said the incident was a ‘serious breach of health-and-safety legislation’ which led to ‘catastrophic injuries’ to Mr de Abreu.

CNR Construction were ordered to pay £50,000 within seven days and the remaining £55,000, which includes an additional £5,000 to cover prosecution costs, by the end of March.

Jurats Charles Blampied and Jane Ronge were also sitting.

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