{"id":518129,"date":"2025-04-07T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=518129"},"modified":"2025-04-07T09:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T08:06:52","slug":"police-hunt-construction-boss-after-court-no-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/legal\/police-hunt-construction-boss-after-court-no-show-07-04-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Police hunt construction boss after court no-show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a construction firm director who failed to attend court to face charges of manslaughter plus health and safety breaches relating to a 2020 site death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peter Clifford, formerly of Holland Road, Felixtowe, failed to turn up to Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday 20 March and again on Friday (4 April).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clifford, 63, faces charges relating to an incident in December 2020 when a man died while undertaking renovation work at a house in Woodbridge, Suffolk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A statement from Suffolk Constabulary said: \u201cFollowing his first failure to appear, the court issued a warrant for his arrest and police are now appealing for assistance from the public to locate him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police said that Clifford, formerly of Holland Road, Felixstowe, was charged with three offences in October last year following a joint investigation with the Health and Safety Executive:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gross negligence manslaughter;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Failing to discharge the employer\u2019s general duty under Section 2 (1) of the Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, (concerning the excavation of a trench and landscaping of the northern and western boundaries \u2013 in relation to risk to employees);<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Failing to discharge the employer\u2019s general duty under Section 3 (1) of the Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, (concerning the landscaping of the northern and western boundaries \u2013 in relation to risk to neighbours).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A further two charges were made against Hintonwood East Anglia Ltd, c\/o Peter Clifford (director):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Failing to discharge the employer\u2019s general duty under Section 2 (1) of the Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, (concerning the excavation of a trench and landscaping of the northern and western boundaries \u2013 in relation to risk to employees);<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Failing to discharge the employer\u2019s general duty under Section 3 (1) of the Health &amp; Safety at Work Act 1974, (concerning the landscaping of the northern and western boundaries \u2013 in relation to risk to neighbours).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The man who died was identified as Dale Baker, aged 30, from Felixstowe.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police described Clifford as white, 5ft 10in tall, bald with receding hair at the sides and of heavy build. He has links to Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and London, they added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They asked anyone with information on Clifford\u2019s whereabouts to call them on 101 quoting reference: 37\/72620\/20.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a construction firm director who failed to attend court to face charges of manslaughter plus health and safety breaches relating to a 2020 site death. Peter Clifford, formerly of Holland Road, Felixtowe, failed to turn up to Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday 20 March and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129711,"featured_media":518130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[578],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of a construction firm director who failed to attend court to face charges of manslaughter plus health and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/legal\/police-hunt-construction-boss-after-court-no-show-07-04-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" 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