BT is fined £300,000 after engineer’s fatal ladder fall

British Telecom has been fined £300,000 for breaches of health and safety laws which led to the death of an engineer in a fall from a stepladder.

David Askew suffered fatal brain damage when he fell and struck his head on the floor while carrying out cabling work at a telephone exchange in Highbury Grove.

The 52-year-old was standing near the top of a seven-foot wooden stepladder, and was reaching to the ceiling of the equipment room when the accident occurred. Mr Askew — an electrical engineer from Braintree, Essex, who had worked for BT for 30 years — died of his injuries in hospital.

A jury at Southwark crown court in October had found the company guilty of failing in its duty to protect employees working at height.

Now Judge Deborah Taylor has fined BT £300,000 and ordered the firm to pay £196,000 in legal costs. She said the firm had given "wrong" advice to staff about the use of ladders, and had failed to provide the correct equipment at the Canonbury telephone exchange where the accident took place.

She said: "In my judgment, these failures by BT contributed to the cause of Mr Askew's fall. This was a significant failing by BT, whose employees regularly worked at height."

She added that Mr Askew was "clearly an exceptional man" and that his death had been a great loss to his family. BT announced that it intended to appeal.