British Telecom has been fined a record amount for unsafe streetworks following a successful prosecution by Transport for London (TfL).

TfL says BT failed to properly sign and guard the work area and also used the wrong traffic management methods in roadworks carried out last August.

The utility company pleaded guilty to the unsafe execution of streetworks with significant risk to public safety at Westminster Magistrates Court and was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay a further £3,394 in court costs.

The case related to works carried out at Bishopsgate in August 2017 when TfL said BT failed to properly sign and guard the work area and also used the wrong traffic management methods.

An Openreach spokesperson said: “We fully accept the judge’s decision and we’re sorry that our safeguards were not up to scratch in these two cases.

“We carry out 3,500 projects like this every month across London and over 99% of these are completed without incident.

“Safety of the public is absolutely paramount to us, and we’ve put further measures in place for our contractors to follow that we believe will prevent this happening in future.”