An Oxford-educated engineer was fined £100,000 after a builder was crushed to death in the basement of a Knightsbridge home.
Nadeem Aftab, 47, was managing the excavation at the Wilton Row property. His employee Arlindo Visentin, 58, a Brazilian father of nine, suffered fatal injuries when the works collapsed on top of him on June 13, 2007.
It later emerged that Aftab was not a qualified civil engineer but was "self-taught" on the basis of seven previous basement excavations.
He had also failed to respond to advice from structural engineers before the accident and afterwards tried to shift blame on to building regulators.
Aftab was sentenced at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to failing to discharge his duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Judge Paul Worsley QC said: "It is the fault of Mr Aftab and that will be on his conscience."
The court heard Aftab is a former councillor for Hammersmith and Fulham who graduated in aeronautical engineering at Manchester University and earned a research degree at Oxford in software engineering. He has also taught engineering at University College London, according to his barrister Alan Steynor.
Mr Steynor added: "It is accepted he is not qualified as a civil engineer ... he is self-taught."
Aftab was appointed as principal contractor in the project in Wilton Row by designer Sinclair Johnston and Partners.
On the day of the accident his employees were due to remove soil that had been excavated when a crack formed where Mr Visentin was standing.
Judge Worsley said: "Warning was shouted but they were too late to avoid the collapse of the excavation which buried Mr Visentin which led to severe crush injuries."
No ambulance was called to the scene and Mr Visentin was instead taken to hospital in Aftab's car. Mr Visentin died later that evening.
The judge added: "Following the accident the defendant did some things which had the effect of diverting responsibility for the management of the project to many people."
Aftab was also ordered to pay £61,000 costs towards the prosecution.
source: thisislondon.co.uk
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