Kalidonis NT, a Darwin construction company has been found guilty over the death of an employee at a remote Northern Territory construction site.
According to the ABC, the Greek Australian owned company had two charges laid by the NT WorkSafe after Paul Leach was fatally struck and killed on March 20, 2020.
The 50-year-old died after a chain snapped and recoiled while he was trying to retrieve a bogged excavator 500km east of Darwin in Maningrida.
In the lead up to his death, the court heard that Leach had attempted to pull the bogged excavator using two chains on two occasions, without authorisation.
The owner and director of the company is Theofilos Kalidonis, who last year saw manslaughter charges against himself dropped.
This was the first prosecution of its kind in NT.
Lawyers representing Kalidonis NT had previously argued Leach took risks that endangered himself and that his death was not the company’s fault.
Judge Ben O’Loughlin told the court: “This is not the case of 2020 hindsight”.
He said the same chains had snapped two times earlier in the year before Leach’s death and the company had other methods to prevent the accident.
“Steps to remove the chain from the site could have been taken,” he wrote in his written judgment.
“It would have been reasonable to warn staff that there would be severe consequences, including termination, if this occurred again.”
He said Kalidonis NT did not provide Leach and other workers with adequate training and the company’s breaches were a significant cause of the risk of Leach’s death.
The matter will return to Darwin Local Court in November for sentencing submissions.
