The sentencing of a building company over the death of a 16-year-old employee has been delayed due to a dispute over its responsibility for the tragedy.
Representatives of Roof Top Rooms Ltd attended Snaresbrook Crown Court for sentencing yesterday (May 27) after it admitted in March it had failed to provide adequate protection for apprentice Alfie Perrin.
It was the third time the company was due to be sentenced but yesterday its lawyers insisted the health and safety breach was not responsible for the teenager's death.
The Enfield apprentice died from a head injury after falling from scaffolding in Camden Road, Wanstead, where Roof Top Rooms Ltd was completing an extension in November 2012.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation found there was no protection around the roof and the scaffold platform had a large gap at one end where a ladder or scaffold poles should have been fitted to reduce the risk of falls.
Site supervisor Andrew Voy, 35, of Memorial Avenue, West Ham was cleared of manslaughter following a trial on March 31 at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Now a three-day Newton Hearing has been arranged, which will involve a judge listening to testimony from witnesses before deciding whether the company was culpable for Alfie’s death.
Two representatives for the company, directors Colin Allison and Gary Smith, will return to Snaresbrook Crown Court on September 2.
The site of Alfie's death in Camden Road, Wanstead.
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