A demolition firm was fined £200,000 sterling yesterday for "the grossest neglect" over the deaths of two Irish workers who plunged eight floors after cutting a hole most of the way around themselves.
Mr Patrick Fraher and Mr William Cummins, both 28, systematically drilled through thick concrete apparently without realising they were standing on the wrong side of the cut.
Neither was wearing the requisite safety harnesses and had no chance of saving themselves as the floor in the office block they were demolishing gave way in January last year.
They fell about 100 ft and died instantly at the site in Gresham Street in the City of London, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Passing sentence, Judge David Elfer QC, said Keltbray Ltd's breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 amounted to the grossest neglect.
He added: "The very danger which haunts the demolition industry occurred."
The firm pleaded guilty after the judge ruled at an earlier hearing that it was an "absolute offence", meaning it had no defence.
The firm, based in central London, enjoyed an "enviable" safety record for its demolition and building work, the court heard.
The judge said Mr Fraher, of New Cross, south-east London, but originally from Waterford, and Mr Cummins, who was staying in Elephant and Castle, south London, but came from Cork, had been cutting "well holes" through each floor of Barrington House.
The Judge said there was evidence to show the men until then had used safety harnesses and inertia reels, but on this day had failed to do so.
They were due to have taken part in a safety course the next day.