A COMPANY director has appeared in court after he failed to ensure the safety of a member of his staff who died when he was crushed under a stack of rubble.

Bacup man Stuart Thompson was killed almost seven years ago while he was working on a construction site in Buckie, Scotland.

Now his former boss and friend Joseph Young has appeared in court charged with a breach of Health and Safety legislation whereby he failed to give his employees proper instructions to demolish the building in Great Western Road between October 14, 2013 and January 27, 2014.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard how Young had ‘little experience’ in construction and no experience in demolition when he struck a deal to start work at the site.

The defendant’s barrister explained how Young had become aware that the premises were to be demolished and offered to carry out the work for free in exchange for being able to dispose of the demolition materials.

Susan Duff, defending, said that the whole approach to the job was described by another colleague as “amateur.”

Other employees at the site said they felt “it was a rush job and corners were cut.”

They said they had not received any training and had simply been told to “crack on.”

Ms Swann said the men had been using diggers to bash at walls without fully knocking them down and also used an unsafe technique known as “bombing.” As reported in the Northern Scot, Ms Duff said: “In short, Mr Young’s ignorance resulted in the death of Mr Thompson.

“That is something he has to live with and something that he finds very difficult.”

The charge continued that he failed to monitor the work, provide site inductions, carry out regular inspections, failed to prevent waste materials being loaded against an interior wall and failed to implement a safe method of dismantling steel structures and walls.

Young, who faced up to two years in prison for his role in the death, was instead ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.