Docklands Light Railway (DLR) operator Serco Ltd has been fined £450,000, after a man was killed when operatives failed to stop or slow down oncoming trains – despite having been told there was someone lying on the track.

The Daily Mail reports that in April, 2007, 34-year-old Robert Carter from Poplar fell off the platform at All Saints station in east London and was hit by the computer-driven carriage, despite police having told Serco operatives that a man was lying on the track.

Southwark Crown Court heard that operatives were unable to see where he was lying because CCTV cameras did not cover the tracks at the station. In April, Serco Ltd was found guilty of breaching its obligations to health and safety legislation.

Passing sentence Judge Deborah Taylor said that Serco ‘fell below considerably what was required of them'. She added that the company would have to pay £43,773 in costs.

Serco is one of the UK’s largest companies and provides services to the defence industry, transport and environmental sectors. Its senior executive Chris Hyman is paid a £1.6m salary – an equivalent daily rate of more than £4,300.

Judge Deborah Taylor said that, following the report from British Transport Police that someone was on the track, operatives in the control room treated the report as ‘an informal request’ rather than an actual police report and failed to check whether there actually was anyone on the track.

Jurors at the trial heard a recording of the call from British Transport Police to the DLR control centre, in which line controller Paul Day was heard to say, 'There's certainly no-one on the track.’

Mr Day told the court he had been unable to see the track from his CCTV monitor.

'I can't actually see the tracks, as it were,’ Mr Day told the court. ‘As the cameras are situated, I can only see the platforms.

'If there was someone on the track, I would expect to see people looking at the person – and all I could see was a guy chatting on his mobile phone and someone reading his newspaper.’

Other operatives said they saw nothing on CCTV ‘to suggest there was an emergency’.

Serco was prosecuted on behalf of the Office of Rail Regulation. The company had denied one count of failing to comply with its health and safety duties.

A spokesman for Serco said the company had made ‘numerous changes’ since the incident and had improved safety procedures.

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