by Keith Hunt

A construction boss has been fined £20,000 over the death of a worker who drowned when his dumper truck plunged into a lake.

Edward "Jim" Day was given a year to pay the amount or face an 18-month jail sentence after a jury convicted him of health and safety breaches.

Earlier in his trial he had been cleared of manslaughter by direction of the judge, Mr Justice Akenhead.

Day, of Longfield Road, Meopham, denied failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety Act 1974 and contravening a Health and Safety regulation, but was convicted.

The judge said he could only impose a fine on the 53-year-old boss of E J Construction for failing to take measures to safeguard against the accident.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Mark Wilkin, 45, was trapped in the truck two-and-a-half metres below the water at Buckland Lake Reserve in Salt Lane, Cliffe, in December 2007.

A health and safety inspector found the site had nothing around it which could properly be described as protection to reduce the risk of vehicles inadvertently being driven into the water.

The 45-year-old victim suffered from chronic epilepsy but only ever had attacks at night.

But Mr Justice Akenhead said medical evidence could not rule out a heart attack or epileptic fit before the tragedy. A pathologist said they were both real possibilities.

"On the evidence, it seems, there was some medical problem which made him lose control of the dumper, which at a speed of four to five mph went over the edge," he said.

The judge told Day: "However, it shows overwhelmingly this site was run by you in an unsafe manner in some respects. You took no suitable or sufficient measures to prevent vehicles going into the lake."