A CORNISH farm business has admitted a health and safety charge after a worker was electrocuted when a potato harvesting machine struck an overhead power line.

Pengelly Farms Ltd, of Newham Road, Truro, pleaded guilty at Cornwall magistrates court to failing to carry out the potato harvest in such a way as to ensure farm workers were not exposed to the risk of harm posed by overhead powerlines and machinery contacting them.

A 24-year-old Polish man, Konrad Miskiewicz, was one of four people on the back of a large vehicle being towed by tractor across a field near Falmouth, Cornwall, in July 2011.

An inquest in Truro held earlier this year heard he was killed by falling off the vehicle or by stepping clear when it struck the power line.

The three other labourers survived the incident by staying on the machine and Mr Miskiewicz may have lived had he stayed where he was.

The inquest was told that tractor drivers working on the land said they had been warned about the power lines before they started work.

An accidental death conclusion was recorded on the victim of the incident.

Pengelly Farms Ltd were committed to Truro Crown Court for sentence next month.