A testing services company has been prosecuted after a employee was killed during work on a construction site in London.

Non Destructive Testing Services Limited of Lenton Business Centre, Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, 1974. It was fined £70,000 with £45,944 in costs.

Southwark Crown Court heard the victim, a father of three from Nottingham, was carrying out pile testing for the firm at a construction site in Brixton on 29 May 2012.

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The accommodation unit he was using was fitted to a vehicle. However, while inside he was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes generated by a gas appliance inside the unit.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the accommodation unit had been set up with two gas appliances, along with pipework and gas bottles which had been stored within it for a number of years.

In addition, the unit had inadequate ventilation and Non Destructive Testing Services had not planned out how the welfare unit would be equipped when deciding to fit it to the vehicle. The company also failed to carry out suitable and sufficient inspections of the cabins over a long period of time.

HSE Inspector Darren Alldis said the incident shows how important it is to properly plan out the design of welfare accommodation.

"The consideration of risks associated with gas and carbon monoxide is essential," he said.

"This unit should never have been set up in this way and posed a risk throughout the whole time it was being used."

(LM)