A former UKIP parliamentary candidate has been found guilty of causing the death of a worker who died after being buried alive under nine feet of mud.
Millionaire property magnate Keith Crawford turned down pleas by victim Peter Clements to dig a trench more safely just 20 minutes before its sides fell in.
Ex-soldier Crawford, who was nicknamed The Colonel by his workers, refused to lay a pipe to secure the diggings and told Mr Clements ‘F*** that, its getting stupid money now, carry on with what you were doing’.
It would have cost just £480 to hire a trench box which would have prevented the tragedy but Crawford chose not to do so. He was said to have a ’cavalier’ approach to safety rules, which he associated with red tape and European regulation.
A leak had sprung up beneath the liner of Crawford’s indoor swimming pool and Mr Clements and his son Ryan were digging a drain to remove the water.
Mr Clements died in hospital three days after being buried alive in the three-metre deep, one-metre wide trench. He had to be dug free by a mechanical excavator and pulled out using a chain tied around his body and attached to the digger arm.
He later claimed that Mr Clements was a self-employed contractor who was responsible for his own safety and to blame for the accident which killed him.
-Crawford, aged 74, of Crusader Court, Pocombe Bridge, near Ide, denied manslaughter and failing to ensure the safety of an employee and was found guilty of both counts by the jury at Exeter Crown Court
Judge Mr Justice Dingemans adjourned sentence to Bristol Crown Court on March 22. He released Crawford on bail but warned him he will go to jail. He said: ‘A custodial sentence is inevitable.’
He also thanked Mr Clements’s family, who were sat in the public gallery, for their dignity and patience during the case, which has lasted two weeks and in which the jury were out for 14 hours and 41 minutes.
During the trial, the prosecution alleged Crawford owed him a duty of care to Mr Clements but had a cavalier attitude to safety and would not pay £480 to hire a trench box which would have prevented the tragedy.
The work was carried out during heavy rainfall and the sides of the trench caved in because they were waterlogged and unsupported.
Crawford claimed he agreed a £3,600 lump sum contract with Mr Clements, who was a self-employed contractor and responsible for safety on the site. He denied making the ’stupid money’ remark or refusing a request to use a safer method.
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.