AN Ipswich engineering firm has to wait until March to find out its fate after breaching the health and safety at work act.Jackson Civil Engineering and sub contractor Christopher Nicholson admitted that they failed to ensure a safe working area which led to the death of a Lowestoft man.

AN Ipswich engineering firm has to wait until March to find out its fate after breaching the health and safety at work act.

Jackson Civil Engineering and sub contractor Christopher Nicholson admitted that they failed to ensure a safe working area which led to the death of a Lowestoft man.

The maximum fine is unlimited.

Neville Cook, 34, from Lowestoft, died after being struck by an excavator during construction work.

Mr Cook had been working for Christopher Nicholson a sub-contractor for Jackson Civil Engineering Ltd.

Jackson Civil Engineering and Mr Nicholson, of High Road, Needham near Harleston, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to failing to ensure safety measures were in place when the accident occurred on November 10, 2000.

At the time of the incident Mr Cook had been carrying out construction work to install new sewage pipes under the Birdseye Ness Point car park in Lowestoft.

The health and safety executive is prosecuting Mr Nicholson for failing to ensure the safety of his employees while Jackson Civil Engineering has breached the health and safety at work act by failing to ensure the safety of people not in its employment by not planning and maintaining a safe working area around a 360 degree excavator.

Mr Nicholson gave his guilty plea from the dock at the court and Jackson Civil Engineering handed in their plea of guilty in writing to Judge Nicholas Beddard.

The court heard that Mr Nicholson and Jackson Civil Engineering are to be sentenced on March 11 following a three-hour hearing which is due to start at 2pm.

The maximum financial penalty the Crown Court can impose for contravention of the Safety at Work Act 1974 is unlimited.