A former UKIP candidate has been found guilty of failing to ensure the safety of a worker who died in a trench collapse on his land.

Keith Crawford remains on trial for manslaughter at Exeter Crown Court where the jury are still considering their verdict on the more serious charge of causing death through gross negligence.

Crawford denies he was responsible for the death of  Peter Clements, who was buried alive while carrying out drainage work on Crawford’s land.

Mr Clements, aged 48, died in hospital from his injuries three days after the accident at Crawford’s home at Ide, near Exeter, in January 2015.

Millionaire property company boss Crawford had hired Mr Clements to lay drains to remove water from a spring which was bubbling up and damaging the indoor swimming pool at his home.

He said Mr Clements agreed a fixed price for the job and was responsible for the safety of himself and others at the site.

Ex-soldier Crawford, aged 74, of Crusader Court, Pocombe Bridge, near Ide, denied manslaughter and the jury will return to continue their deliberations on Friday.

He was found guilty of a second charge brought under the Health and Safety Act of failing to ensure the safety of an employee.

During the two-week trial the prosecution alleged Crawford had a cavalier attitude to safety and put Mr Clements at risk because he would not pay £480 to hire a trench box which was needed to remove the risk of a fatal collapse.

The work was carried out during heavy rainfall and the sides of the trench caved in because they were waterlogged and unsupported.

Mr Clements’s son Ryan, who was working with him, and a digger driver operating on site both said they heard Crawford reject a plan to carry out the job more safely and say ‘F*** that, its getting stupid money now, carry on with what you were doing’.

Crawford gave evidence that he agreed a lump sum contract with Mr Clements, who he said was a self-employed sub-contractor and responsible for safety on the site.

He denied making the ’stupid money’ remark or refusing a request to use a safer method.

Crawford owns 60 properties in and around Exeter with a total value of around £7 million, which produce an annual income of around £360,000. He was known as The Colonel by the workmen because of his military background.

He denied suggestions from the prosecution that ’he did not give a damn’ or that he disliked red tape or anything that may be connected to European regulations.

He said: ‘There is not a day goes by I don’t examine in my conscience that trench and ask myself why I did not notice and realise it was a danger.

‘I had a good working relationship with Pete and I don’t know why he did not say it was dangerous. I would have gone in the trench myself. I did not see it was dangerous. I really didn’t.

‘If I had seen anyone doing anything dangerous I would have said. He was a sub-contractor and was very experienced and a good and multi-talented guy.

‘It was his job and I did not tell him what to do. I would have got short shrift if I did. If you carry on interfering, you would not get people working for you.

‘I went there every day but I was not overseeing the work. I had a guy on a price who was experienced and was getting on with his job as he saw fit.’

Crawford stood as the UKIP candidate in Exeter in the 2010 and 2015 general elections, losing to Labour’s Ben Bradshaw on both occasions and for the South West constituency in the European Parliament elections in 2014.