A Suffolk company director has been jailed after admitting he was responsible for the death of an employee following a construction incident in Woodbridge.
Peter Clifford, 63, appeared before Ipswich Crown Court, where he was sentenced to eight years and 10 months’ imprisonment and has been banned from acting as the director of a company for 10 years.
Clifford, of Holland Road, Felixstowe had previously pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and two health and safety failings under the Health and Safety Act 1974.
It comes after Suffolk Police were called at 4.30pm on Tuesday December 15 2020, to Haughgate Close, where a man undertaking renovation work on a house was reported to have sustained serious injuries.
Other emergency services personnel also attended, but the man died at the scene. He was later identified as Dale Baker, aged 30, from Felixstowe.
A joint investigation was launched by the police Major Investigation Team and the Health and Safety Executive to determine the circumstances leading to Mr Baker’s death and whether his employer, Peter Clifford, was culpable.
The investigation found Clifford’s company – Hintonwood East Anglia – had been working at a property in Woodbridge to build an extension on their house. Mr Baker had been working for Clifford as a labourer along with another man.
On the day of Mr Baker’s death, a trench was dug along the side of a conservatory attached to the house.
A building inspector came out to look at the works, at which time the trench was approximately 1.5 metres deep.
On being informed the existing structure had a basement, the inspector told Clifford he would need to dig an inspection hole to see where the basement wall was, as this would determine the type of foundation required for the extension. As a result, Clifford then dug down deeper in the trench.
When a trench such as this is dug, essential health and safety measures are required to ensure it does not collapse. The primary way that this is done is via ‘shuttering’, where a supporting frame is used to make sure the sides of the trench do not collapse.
The investigation found that Clifford either took no steps to support the side of the trench, or took steps that were completely inadequate. It was also determined the trench had been dug dangerously close to the conservatory creating a risk of undermining it and that Clifford took no action to support its foundations.
It was also found that Clifford took no steps to implement another essential health and safety measure by fencing-off the trench and preventing people from falling in.
Dale Baker was killed after the side of the trench collapsed on him, followed by the foundations of the conservatory. A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death to be suffocation.
Clifford was first charged in October 2024 and summonsed to appear before magistrates the following month on November 15 2024.
After this appearance he was bailed pending a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on March 20 2025, which he failed to attend and the court subsequently issued a warrant for his arrest.
Clifford then failed to attend a further hearing on April 4 2025, and later that same day Suffolk Constabulary circulated him to the media as a wanted person.
He remained at large for three months before being located in Scotland and arrested on July 9 2025.
Superintendent Mike Brown, the Senior Investigating Officer, said: “Dale Baker’s family have had to wait almost six years to see justice served for their loved one – a process that Peter Clifford has deliberately impeded.
“Clifford could have admitted his obvious responsibility for Dale’s death much earlier than he did. It was clear that he had failed in his duty as an employer to ensure the safety of the construction site and implement basic measures that would’ve prohibited a tragic incident such as this to occur.
“To then compound matters by failing to appear at court and going on the run displayed a level of contempt for Dale’s family and the judicial process.
“This was a joint investigation with the Health & Safety Executive, whose assistance was vital in gathering the evidence and enabling us to bring a strong case to the Crown Prosecution Service who ultimately approved the charges.
“I would like to extend my thanks to the HSE, the CPS and the other expert witnesses who were all vital in helping to achieve the convictions in this case.”
Richard Rajham, HM Inspector of Health & Safety at the Health & Safety Executive, said: “The tragic death of Dale Baker again shows the importance of planning to ensure that proper precautions are taken to control the risks from work in and around excavations.
“Workers continue to die and be injured in collapsing excavations, all of these could be avoided with proper planning and control measures.”
Advice on safety in excavations can be found here.
