Labourer is buried alive on construction site after 10ft trench collapses on top of him - as two firms and manager are convicted over death

Published: 15:26, 22 May 2026 | Updated: 15:39, 22 May 2026 Two firms and a manager have been convicted over the death of a labourer who was buried alive after a 10ft trench collapsed on top of him.  Gheorghita Arsene, a 33-year-old Romanian national, died while he was working on the demolition of a care home in Banstead, Surrey, on June 24 2020. He had been working to replace a damaged pipe at the bottom of the 10ft deep trench when without warning one or more of the trench walls collapsed. His colleagues then desperately tried to dig him out of the soil with their bare hands and to remove debris from his face. Fire and ambulance crews were called to the scene but paramedics' efforts to revive him were hampered by the weight of the soil around him and difficulties in digging him out. It was not possible to carry out chest compressions as Mr Arsene could not be removed from the trench and he was sadly pronounced dead at 2.44pm, an hour after the accident happened. The excavation was so unsafe that the body could not be removed until the following morning. After his tragic death, health and safety inspectors found that there were no supports to the trench and the excavated soil had been deposited right next to it, the Old Bailey heard. Gheorghita Arsene, a 33-year-old Romanian national, died while he was working on the demolition of a care home in Banstead, Surrey, on June 24 2020. Pictured: the new care home built after the demolition was complete John McGuinness KC had told jurors: 'The prosecution case is that George's death was entirely avoidable. It should never have happened.' Anthony O'Connor admitted failing to ensure Mr Arsene's safety under Health and Safety regulations today after Judge Judy Khan indicated she would not pass a custodial sentence and the manslaughter charge was dropped. While site manager Peter Wraith, 54, was cleared by a jury of manslaughter by gross negligence, and assistant Greg Peake, 51, was also cleared of breaching health and safety regulations. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on O'Connor, 42, who denied the manslaughter of Mr Arsene by gross negligence, after over three days of jury deliberations. Both Wraith and O'Connor's companies, specialist care home builder Appledorn and subcontractor T Vaughan Limited (TVL), were convicted of failing to ensure Mr Arsene's safety by unanimous verdicts. The court heard that the trench was so narrow that there was only enough room for one man to dig at a time, and Mr Arsene was taking it in turns with another employee, Daniel Plitan. Mr McGuinness said: 'At the time of the accident, George was working at the bottom of the trench with a shovel and a pickaxe which he had been using to clear away soil from around the damaged pipe when, without warning, one or more of the sides of the trench collapsed. 'Victor Lungu who was in the digger saw the trench starting to collapse and shouted to George, who looked up. 'George reacted, but was only able to take one or two steps to try to get out of the trench before the soil fell and almost completely covered him. 'Lungu got out of the digger and rushed down to where George was in the trench. He shouted to him but there was no response and he ran off to get help. 'Desperate attempts were made by those there to get George out from under the soil that was covering him.' The prosecutor said that Mr Lungu managed to move the soil away from his face but he was unresponsive and more debris continued to fall into the trench.  'They managed to move away enough soil to expose his face and upper body, but he was unresponsive to all attempts to revive him. 'The ground around the trench was boggy and unstable,' he added.  In a damning assessment of the incident, Mr McGuinness said it was 'barely believable that absolutely nothing was done' to secure the trench wall to prevent a collapse.    'It is astonishing there was no risk assessment and no method statement for the deep trench excavation work that led to the accident here,' he added. 'Neither Appledorn nor TVL gave any thought in advance to the safety of two men working in the bottom of a trench, the sides of which were liable to collapse at any moment - and eventually did.' Following a trial at the Old Bailey lasting more than three months, principal contractor Appledorn Developments Limited and TVL were found guilty of a health and safety charge of failing to discharge their duties. Contracts manager Anthony O'Connor, 42, of Romford, Essex, pleaded guilty to failing to discharge his duty under the Health and Safety Act 1974, which was accepted by the prosecution. Site manager Peter Wraith, 54, from New Waltham in Lincolnshire, was cleared of manslaughter and assistant site manager Gregory Peake, 51, from Bromley in south east London, was acquitted of failing to discharge his health and safety duty. O'Connor, TVL and Appledorn will be sentenced on September 7.  The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.