A WREXHAM crane firm has been cleared of a health and safety offence after a joiner was injured during the construction of a timber framed house at Bodfari.

A Mold crown court jury on Friday found TJ Crane Hire not guilty.

Barrister Adrian Farrow, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said Williams Homes (Bala) had already pleaded guilty to a health and safety offence.

Sentencing will be in May.

Miles Bennett, defending, had argued that the jury could not be sure that the legal obligations fell on his client company and suggested the responsibility lay with Williams Homes.

The self employed joiner Robert Eifion Jones needed more than 80 stitches to the face following an accident.

He also suffered two skull fractures, a broken nose and other injuries.

The court was told that computer software consultants Andrew and Nancy Emslie bought a plot at Bodfari and were at the time in the process of building their own home.