Legal

A roofer who gambled away a COVID support loan he secured using false information has been hit by strict limits on his future business activity. The Insolvency Service agreed a bankruptcy restrictions undertaking with David Godderidge after he obtained a “far greater” Bounce Back Loan than he was entitled to.…

Construction workers at a troubled construction site in London have been fined thousands of pounds for holding a party while the country was in lockdown. The six rule-breaking workers were found surrounded by empty beer bottles and celebrating St Patrick's Day on site on 17 March last year, according to…

A construction boss has been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence following the death of a roofer. Steven Wenham, 48, director of Hove-based Total Contractors Ltd, faces sentencing in June for the offence, which can lead to life imprisonment. Lewes Crown Court heard that 60-year-old Graham Tester had been…

Four members of an organised-crime family in London have been sentenced to five years or more in prison after being convicted of human-trafficking offences. Following sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, the head of the family, Vasile Dragoi Snr, was given a six-year custodial sentence for his role in a scheme…

The director of a recruitment agency specialising in the construction sector has been disqualified from being a director for six years. Stephen Joseph John Mason, aged 45, from Edinburgh, was handed the penalty after the insolvency practitioner found he had failed to maintain or preserve adequate accounting records. His company,…

Unite the Union’s headquarters in London were raided by police this week in relation to a financial crime investigation involving the construction of a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham. Sky News reported that between 15 and 20 officers were involved in the search of the office building in Holborn…

Twenty-four construction-related businesses went into administration in March, Construction News can reveal. Although the figure is a slight decrease from the 31 failures recorded in February, it is still more than the 23 that went under in October, which was the highest total for a single month in 2021. Business…

Liverpool-based contractor Crossfield Construction has been placed in liquidation. The construction arm of Crossfield Group appointed Paul Cooper and Paul Appleton of insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor to oversee the process. Crossfield Group is made up of two divisions: Crossfield Construction and a housebuilding arm called Crossfield Living. Only the construction…

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) has said that the cancellation of the red-diesel rebate has compelled it to publish new standards for the pricing of work carried out on a day-work basis. The trade body is made up of 300 contractor members and publishes the Schedules of Dayworks, which…

The return to normality on construction sites has taken a big step forward today with the removal of various restrictive government guidelines relating to COVID-19. Advice to enforce mask-wearing in certain confined spaces, stagger break times and frequently clean specified surfaces has been dropped by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC),…