Moses Meisels received a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs City of London Magistrates Court due to his role in the incident.

The Metropolitan Police discovered the man’s body at the site of a synagogue development at Upper Clapton Road, in Hackney, in December 2018.

Although the worker had died as a result of natural causes, subsequent inspections by the HSE revealed multiple life-threatening safety failures at the site.

Meisels was overseeing major structural work to enlarge the synagogue, but he repeatedly ignored warnings about dangerous practices – putting construction workers at serious risk of fatal falls.

Following the discovery of the man’s body, HSE inspectors conducted four separate visits in a five-month period, where they uncovered a catalogue of serious failures including:

• Workers operating on the roof beyond the protection of scaffolding edge barriers
• Large, unprotected holes in the ground floor creating fall risks into the basement below
• A single unsecured ladder as the only access to the first floor, which didn’t extend far enough to provide a safe handhold
• Construction waste dangerously stacked in the front garden

At City of London Magistrates Court, Meisels ofStoke Newington, pleaded guilty to breaching Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. He received a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for one year, and was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs.

HSE inspector David King said: “It is essential that clients must make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including the allocation of sufficient time and other resources.

“Clients should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action them if fail to ensure their construction projects meet the required standards.”