AN ELECTRICIAN yesterday told a jury at Dundee Sheriff Court of the moment his colleague was electrocuted as they were working at the new JJB Sports Centre in Dundee three years ago.

The witness, James Kelly of Dunbar, said he was holding on to the ladder on which Michael Adamson was standing when a false ceiling began to move and Mr Adamson fell to the ground as the ceiling gave way.

Accused of contravening the Health and Safety at Work Act, whereby electrician Michael Adamson of Bo’ness worked on a live wire and died, is Mitie Engineering Services (Edinburgh) Ltd. Mitie managing director William Mitchell, operations director Scott Wallace and technical services manager Ian Storrar deny that the alleged offence was committed with their “consent or connivance” or was attributable to their neglect.

The indictment alleges that Mitie, of Roddinglaw Business Park, Edinburgh, as an employer engaged in the installation, testing and commissioning of electrical and mechanical services at the sports centre, did between April 1 and August 4, 2005, fail to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees.

The company denies the indictment, which goes on to allege it failed to provide a safe system of work and information, instruction, training and supervision, risk assessment and sufficient resources for work to be carried out safely.

It is further alleged the company failed to test circuits and wires into a distribution board before they were made live and that they failed to ensure the board was not live while employees and particularly Mr Adamson, formerly of Drum Farm Lane, Bo’ness, were working on circuits connected to it.

The indictment further alleges that the company failed to ensure implementation of safe isolation procedures and provision of suitable equipment, resulting in a live wire running from a miniature circuit breaker in the distribution box and the live wire being wrongly labelled “Not In Use” whereby employee Mr Adamson worked on the live wire, was electrocuted and died as a result.

Mr Kelly, an electrician for more than 22 years, said that he, Mr Adamson and another colleague had been working in Edinburgh in the morning and were asked to go to Dundee on the afternoon of August 4, 2005. He had known Mikey for about six months and considered him a good electrician.

On arrival they had gone to the office and he did not think they got induction on to the site. After a tea break, around 5.45pm, Mikey had asked another electrician to give him a hand, but Mr Kelly said he would help in about 20 minutes. The job was to pull a cable above a false ceiling in the reception area of the sports club.

Michael had wanted Mr Kelly to “foot” the ladder. The jury was shown photos of the ceiling area concerned where there was a junction box attached to white cable trunking on one side and three brown, blue and green wires on the other.

Mr Kelly said Mikey had fitted round the junction box and put the white cable on. He was standing up the ladder with his back to him and his feet were about the level of Mr Kelly’s head. He had to join the three other wires and Mr Kelly said it was often the case that little tags were attached to cables saying where they had come from and where they were going. He said there was a tag marked “Not In Use” attached to a bit of the cable Mikey had been working on.

Mr Kelly realised something was wrong when he saw the false ceiling move and he looked up. The false ceiling was attached to the proper ceiling and Mikey’s right arm was touching this wire.

“I said, ‘You’re leaning on the wire Mikey,’ and I saw the ceiling go up about six inches.” He thought Mikey had not heard because of music playing, but he must have been getting electrocuted at that time.

“He must have fallen back on to the ceiling and the ceiling collapsed.

“I saw the false ceiling belly and there were just about seven or eight seconds between the false ceiling going up and Mikey coming down.”

Mr Kelly said he had shouted for help and people had started working on Mikey right away.

Mr Kelly said it normally got busier towards the end of a job as people were trying to finish it. He said they were not being pressured to finish the job.

He did not consider what Michael was doing was unusual or difficult. He said it was clear some circuits were switched on because some lights were on.

Asked if before cutting through a cable an electrician would test it, Mr Kelly said “by the book” everyone would, but in circumstances where the cable was marked “not in use” he would say no.

The jury next heard from Scott Hagart of the Sharkey Group, the main contractor in fitting the JJB Centre, which had sub-contracted Mitie for electrical and mechanical installation. He said the job was a 16-week contract due to finish the day after the fatal accident.

Asked how the work went he said initially they had some concerns over the mechanical installation, which was not going as well or as quickly as it should.

As to the electrical side, a month before the handover in early July, there was still a lot to do, and two weeks on, the concerns increased. Mr Hagart said his impression was that Mitie was undermanned on the electrical side and he had told accused Ian Storrar of his concerns.

He said it was agreed Mitie would work the weekend before completion with a larger squad. This had happened but they did not get finished. On the Monday of the final week there were only three electricians on site and he told Mr Storrar it was a “wrong call” to have only three.

Mr Hagart said relations were getting a bit strained by this time and was told that the electrics would be finished for Thursday, the day of the accident, at midday.

He said on Wednesday there were eight men there and on the Thursday around 16 electricians. He said it was disappointing that the number of men had been dropped by Mitie in the last few days. Mitie had assured him that the handover would take place by midday on Thursday, but were not in a position to do so.

He had walked round the site with all three accused and told them they had failed in the delivery of the job and was told they had miscalculated.

Mr Hagart said it was not the case that no formal complaints had been made to Mitie regarding lack of resources or progress of works.

Asked about the atmosphere on the day of the accident he said, “There was an awful lot of activity and an awful lot still to do.’’ He had not been there when the accident took place.

Cross examined, Mr Hagart agreed that he had said he would not use Mitie again but that Sharkey, his employers, had chosen to do so on contracts since 2005.

The trial continues.