An employer's complete disregard for the health and safety of his migrant workers led to one suffering severe brain damage in an accident on a Bradford building site, a jury heard.

Dusan Dudi was left fighting for his life when he was knocked off makeshift scaffolding by a falling reinforced concrete lintel.

The injuries suffered by Mr Dudi, a Slovakian, were thought to be non-survivable, but when his life support machine was switched off against all expectations he carried on breathing.

But prosecutor Simon Jackson QC told a jury at Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Mr Dudi still suffered from substantial disabilities.

Shah Nawaz Pola, 35, is on trial accused of breaching the Health and Safety Act on the site.

The court was told yesterday that Pola had bought a house in Allerton Road, Allerton, and was having extensive works done.

But Mr Jackson said that his cost-cutting and short cuts had put his untrained workers at risk. There was no proper scaffolding in place and the workers were not given protective clothing or any training before work began in July 2005.

Jurors were told that despite not having any relevant experience, Pola oversaw all the work that was carried out.

In November 2005 Mr Dudi was told to demolish a wall. He was working on an improvised scaffold 3.5 metres high when part of the wall fell on top of him.

Pola, of Springcliffe Street, Bradford, denies that he was the person in charge of the site. He told interviewing officers that another man, Sajid Shah, and been in charge at first and then a Mr Singh had taken over.

He has pleaded not guilty to four breaches of the Health and Safety Act and two breaches of a prohibition notice.

The Health and Safety Executive visited the site after the accident and issued Pola with a prohibition notice banning any further work until all the safety issues had been resolved.

But Mr Jackson said that Pola showed "contempt" for his legal requirements and continued on as before.

Other contractors were asked to undertake various work on the site. Plant hire company owner Philip Summers told officers that he pulled his workers from the site because of the dangerous conditions.

Mr Summers described the site as the worst he had ever been to and said there were bare electrical wires on view and workers were using their hands to put cement on the walls.

"It was an accident waiting to happen," Mr Summers told officers.

Pola was issued with another prohibition notice but Mr Jackson said that when he was challenged by HSE inspectors about the conditions he replied that if they chose to work like that and something happened it was nothing to do with him.

The jury was told that despite this second prohibition notice the work still continued.

"This showed a clear disregard on the part of Mr Pola for the safety of others and an obvious contempt for his legal requirements," Mr Jackson told the jury.

"The defendant repeatedly ignored advice about measures that needed to be put in place. He was simply not prepared to spend the money to ensure the safety of his employees and other people working on the project.

"The thing he was good at was cutting corners even at the expense of safety."

Mr Jackson told the jury: "He was motivated to save money at the expense of health and safety. The consequence of all these short cuts is a man, a migrant worker, who came to this country to better provide for his family, is severely and permanently disabled."

The trial continues.