David Green, a 32-year-old father of four, was manoeuvring a 9t front tipping dumper truck on a spoil heap to offload top soil when he lost control of the truck which toppled forward and came to rest upside down at the base of the spoil heap.

A colleague noticed the overturned truck and ran over to assist, but Green had sustained a serious head injury during the fall and died at the scene.

Green was carrying out work on for Rose Builders at its Summers Park 150-home development in Colchester, Essex in October 2016.

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found major deficiencies in the management of tipping operations on the spoil heaps.

Safety investigators found the operation was not properly planned; drivers were not given instruction or training on how to safely operate vehicles and tip on spoil heaps, and the job itself was poorly supervised.

Green did not have his seat belt fastened and the investigation confirmed that this was common practice on the site.

Rose Builders of East Lawford in Essex was handed the fine after pleading guilty to two breaches of health and safety law. It was ordered to pay costs of £11,823.

HSE inspector Kasia Urbaniak said: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of the employer to assess the risk related to tipping operations, implement safe systems of work, and failure to ensure that such systems were communicated to groundworkers and were followed.”