CORBIN: FIRM FINED £1 FOR DEATH FALL

A satellite dish installer which went in to liquidation after an engineer fell more than 40-feet to his death was fined just £1 for breaching health and safety regulations.

Foxtel Ltd lost a major contract to fix and install Sky receivers following the death of Noel Corbin, 29, in 2008 and ceased trading earlier this year owing more than £100,000.

Mr Corbin, a former Croydon Athletic footballer, had been working for the Essex-based firm for only two weeks when he slipped off the roof of a four-storey property in northwest London.

He had been sent to adjust a dish which had lost signal because of some building works. But once he completed the task he returned to the roof to re-align another resident’s dish which received German satellite channels.

He died instantly on February 3 2008 after landing on the patio of a neighbouring house in Belsize Park Gardens, Belsize Park.

Mr Corbin had not been given any training by the company, nor was his work monitored or supervised during a probationary period.

Instead Foxtel relied on the fact he was an experienced technician when sending him to jobs, the Old Bailey heard.

Foxtel, which had its headquarters in Brentwood, admitted a single count of failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees at work.

However as the firm faced being sentenced today it argued through its barrister Harry Vann that Mr Corbin had not technically been ‘at work’ at the time of the fall because he had already completed his contracted work for Foxtel.

Judge Peter Thornton said he had been forced to impose a nominal fine on Foxtel because of its financial situation, but had the company been solvent the fine would have been £60,000.

Foxtel were also unable to pay the prosecution costs of £54,000.

But as he sentenced the firm, with former director Tony Smith and his brother David, the operations manager in court, the judge criticised the way the case had been presented.

He said: ‘There seems to be little remorse, regret or humility in the defendant’s plea, only an attempt to pass the blame to Mr Corbin and the other companies and to escape as much responsibility for the death as possible.’

Judge Thornton added that Mr Corbin’s ‘helpful’ efforts would have been praised had the incident not ended so tragically and bosses ‘would have applauded him for his extra work which was good for customer service and good for business’.

He ruled that Foxtel was responsible for his death.

‘They put him up on the roof in the course of his employment in a way which was criminally unsafe,’ he said.

‘He only fell from the roof because the defendant required him to be there.’

Mr Corbin’s mother sobbed in the well of the court and was comforted by her son, the dead man’s younger brother.

With reference to the £1 fine, the judge added: ‘This may seem to the deceased’s relatives to be a derisory figure, it is not.

‘It is merely a reflection of the company’s lack of money.

‘It does not reflect upon the tragic loss of human life in this case.’

The court heard Mr Corbin arrived at (54) Belsize Park Gardens at 10am on February 3 2008 for his third job of the day.

Foxtel, which had traded since 2001, were subcontracted to do the work for ABC Europe, who were in turn subcontracted by BSKYB.

Mr Corbin, from Croydon, had been told it was a ‘standard service call’ and having spoken to the customer he accessed the floor through a dormer window on the top floor.

He returned to the flats on one occasion to check that the set top boxes were correctly tuned, but went back on the roof to check the German dish as a favour.

It was at this time that he fell 13.5-metres to the ground, where he died almost instantly. At least one resident in the flats saw him fall from the roof.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation followed.

Claire Harden, prosecuting, said Foxtel assessed Mr Corbin’s suitability by the amount of experience he had, but had not given him any formal training.

‘As far as Foxtel were concerned they gave him a short company induction but did not undertake their own training with him to ensure he could do the job in a safe manner, nor did they monitor his work.

‘He was not subject to any period of probation.’

She said this approach was ‘wholly insufficient’.

The particular job should never have been undertaken by a single worker and should have been assigned to a team with specialist training to work at heights.

Mr Corbin had undergone such training, but this was completed as far back as 2002.

No risk assessment forms were found in Mr Corbin’s van.

‘As soon as he stepped out on to the roof there was a high risk that any slip or trip would have resulted in him falling from the roof and that any fall was likely to result in serious injury or death,’ said Miss Harden.

‘They (Foxtel) relied on Mr Corbin’s experience, rather than taking their new employees through their own safe working practices.’

Mr Vann, defending, said that as a result of Mr Corbin’s death both Sky and ABC ‘distanced themselves from Foxtel’ and as a result ABC withdrew its contract for installation and repair of dishes.

In 2009 Foxtel’s other main client also went in to administration and liquidation and Foxtel followed in June of this year.

ENDS