A man who was left with metal plate in his head and a permanent injury to his right arm and leg has been awarded £17,000 in compensation from his employer John Doyle Construction Ltd.

Stephen James, 59, from West Sussex was seriously injured three years’ ago when 20 steel bars fell from a crane and landed on him. Mr James is now partially paralysed down the right side of his body.

Mr James and wife Sharon told local newspaper the St Albans & Harpenden Review that they have had to wait for three years until the outcome of the court case, heard last week at City of London Magistrates’ Court. The Health and Safety Executive had prosecuted John Doyle Construction Ltd, after finding that the steel beams had not been lifted in a safe manner by the crane.

Mr James was working directing crane drivers on the site at Victoria, south London at the time of the accident.

The company was fined £2,000 and had to award Mr James £17, 466 in costs. Mr James’ wife Sharon has had to give up work to care full time for her husband. Mrs James, 55, spoke out about the size of the fine imposed on the company, however.

‘My husband's life has been ruined. I can't believe they were fined just £2,000 for something which has left my husband crippled on one side.’

Mr James had been doing his job securing metal beams before they are lifted by a crane for 30 years. The father of four says that he cannot remembers what happened after the beams were lifted on the day of the accident in September 2007, but was confident that everything had gone normally before they were lifted.

‘I can't remember what happened after then,’ he told reporters. ‘The next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital bed.

‘There wasn't any cause for concern on the site – everything seemed normal. But I am absolutely gutted that I can never work again. I used to love getting up for work but I will never do that again in my life. I will have to depend on my wife,’ he added.

After the accident, Mrs James spent 15 weeks living in a hostel in London while her husband was fighting to survive at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London.

‘It was horrendous to see him lying there helpless. Almost every bone in his right arm was smashed,’ she said.

‘He loves his grandchildren, but he will never be able to pick them up again or play football in the park like they used to.'

The newspaper report said John Doyle Construction Ltd had declined to comment.

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