Boss jailed after workmen die in balcony fall

A CONSTRUCTION boss has been jailed for 14 months after two workmen fell to their deaths from a balcony.

The company at which Martin Gutaj was managing director was also fined £1.2 million for “shocking failures” that led to the deaths of Tomasz Procko, 22, and 29-year-old Karol Symanski.

The pair died in an “entirely foreseeable and preventable” accident while hauling a large sofa up through the first floor balcony during a multi-millionpound luxury flat refit.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that the project was behind schedule with a budget soaring to £920,000 by the time the 11ft (3.26m), 18 stone (115kg) sofa was delivered in November 2014.

Work was being carried out on the flat at Cadogan Square in Belgravia, central London, which is between Harrods and Sloane Square.

The court heard that delivering the sofa safely would have required an elevator costing £848.

Gutaj, of Martinisation (London) Ltd, rejected the suggestion, saying they “do not have time for all that” and they would get it up to the flat themselves.

Workers leaned against a 130-year-old cast iron balustrade as they pulled the sofa up about 20ft to the level of the balcony. The railing gave way and two of the men fell on to the pavement while a third was saved only after he was grabbed by his colleagues, the court heard.

A jury found the company guilty of health and safety breaches and two charges of corporate manslaughter, while Gutaj, 44, from Brentford, was convicted of breaching health and safety.

The court heard that at the time, the company, which specialised in “high-end residential contracts” in Kensington and Chelsea, had an annual turnover of £9.7million but had gone into liquidation in August last year.

Judge Gerald Gordon said a health and safety culture was “entirely lacking”.

Jailing Gutaj, he said: “The word has got to get out that health and safety on building sites is not a boring technicality.

“Those who are wilfully blind to the risks despite warnings – as you were – have got to expect to go immediately to prison.”