A construction company has won its appeal against its conviction for allegedly breaching safety regulations on a building site where a drainage pipe-layer died.
The three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday ordered that the conviction of PJ Carey (Contractors) Ltd should be quashed after finding the trial judge had erred in allowing a charge of having a dangerous work system to go before the jury. No retrial was ordered.
The company, of Carey House, Great Central Way, Wembley, England, was convicted and fined €250,000 at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 2008 after a jury convicted it of having a dangerous work system at a site on Ballymun Road on December 9th, 2002.
The trial heard that Brendan Coulton, Emyvale, Co Monaghan, died after an unsupported trench being dug by him and others collapsed.