Child’s Hill car wash owner jailed after worker electrocuted in shower

A car wash owner has been jailed after an employee was electrocuted while showering in squalid rat-infested housing he provided for workers.

Sandu Laurentiu died inside the dilapidated, cramped accommodation set up for Romanian workers by 52-year-old Shaip Nimani behind Bubbles Carwash he owned in Bethnal Green, east London.

The Old Bailey heard the shower had been wired up with no earth connection and unauthorised modifications had been made to it.

In addition Nimani had bypassed the electricity meter in the wet property to avoid bills, and had also interfered with the wiring to prevent the fuses blowing from an overload of plugs.

Officers spoke to five other men who lived and worked with Mr Laurentiu at the car wash and discovered they had all regularly suffered electric shocks while showering but thought that was the norm.

Last week Nimani, of Purley Avenue, Child’s Hill, was convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Laurentiu who died in August 2015.

He was jailed for four years and has been ordered to pay £20,000 to the victim’s family.

He was also ordered to pay £20,000 costs and has been banned from being a company director for 10 years.