Examples of cases

The first prosecution for corporate manslaughter, against Cotswold Geotechnical Services in February 2011, resulted in a fine of only £385,000. It was prosecuted over the death of geologist, Alexander Wright:

Alexander Wright, 27, had been left working alone in a 3.5 metre deep trench which was not supported by timbers after the managing director of the company had left for the day. Mr Wright was taking soil samples for a housing development when the trench caved in, burying him completely. He died of asphyxiation. The judge allowed the company, described in Court as being in a “parlous financial state” to pay the fine spread over 10 years and said a larger fine would cause the company to be liquidated, with the loss of four jobs. The company’s subsequent appeal against conviction was unsuccessful.

JMW Farms Limited (Co. Armagh) became the first company in Northern Ireland to be convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act (CMHA) 2007. On 8 May 2012, it was fined a record £187,500 plus £13,000 costs at Belfast’s Laganside Crown Court for health and safety failings that led to the death of employee Robert Wilson:

Robert Wilson died on 15 November 2010 while working in the meal-mixing plant on the company’s pig farm at Tynan, Co. Armagh after being struck by a metal bin which fell from a forklift being driven by company director Mark Wright. A joint police and Health and Safety Executive (NI) investigation found that the bin had not been attached or integrated with the forklift. In addition, it was not possible to insert the lifting forks into the sleeves of the bin as the forks were too large and incorrectly spaced.

In July 2012, Lion Steel Equipment, a Cheshire manufacturing firm, was fined almost half a million pounds for corporate manslaughter following the death of a worker after pleading guilty to the charge. The firm was issued with a fine of £480,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £84,000 by Manchester Crown Court. This case involved the death of Steven Berry, who died after falling through a fragile roof panel at a site in Hyde, Cheshire in May 2008. Individual charges of gross negligence manslaughter against the firm’s three directors were dropped in return for the company’s pleading guilty to corporate manslaughter.

In October 2013, County Down company J Murray & Sons pleaded guilty to the corporate manslaughter of employee Norman Porter who died in 2012 after either falling or being dragged into an animal feed mixing machine. The company was fined £100,000 plus £10,000 costs; but the court allowed this to be paid in £20,000 annual instalments in order to try to safeguard 16 jobs at the firm.

Princes Sporting Club was charged with corporate manslaughter and fined £135,000, following the death of 11-year-old Mari-Simon Cronje, who died during a birthday celebration at the club in Bedfont, Middlesex on 11 September 2010. She died after she fell from a boat ride and was hit by the boat that had been towing it. In this case the company was no longer operating. The judge commented that he had no greater power to do anything other than impose a fine and could not impose a greater fine than all of its assets.

Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Limited was charged with corporate manslaughter and the owner was fined £183,000 and disqualified from acting as a director for five years. This followed the death of Malcolm Hinton who died from crush injuries after working on a repair beneath a road-sweeping truck in 2012. The company ceased trading after the death, but had not been wound up. Its owner, Mervyn Owens, was fined £183,000 for an offence under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA) and disqualified from acting as a director for five years in order to pre-empt the company reforming after the case.

Cavendish Masonry Limited was found guilty of the corporate manslaughter of stone mason’s mate David Evans at Oxford Crown Court on 22 May 2014 and later fined £150,000 plus £87,117 costs. Mr Evans was killed as he was erecting a large wall at the Well Barn Estate in Moulsford, Wallingford in February. A two tonne limestone block fell off a concrete lintel and crushed him. He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital by air ambulance but was pronounced dead later the same day.

Recycling firm Sterecycle, was fined £500,000 in November 2014 after being found guilty of corporate manslaughter following the death of waste processing operator Michael Whinfrey. He was killed at Sterecycle’s plant in Rotherham in January 2011 when an autoclave door failed and blew out under pressure. Another man suffered “serious life-changing injuries”.

In January 2015 kayak manufacturing company Pyranha Mouldings was found guilty of corporate manslaughter after senior supervisor Alan Catterall was trapped in an industrial oven at the company’s factory in Runcorn, Cheshire in 2010. It was later fined £200,000. The firm’s technical director and designer of the oven Peter Mackereth was also found guilty of criminal safety breaches.

Later the same month Northern Ireland sawmill company A. Diamond and Son (Timber) Ltd was fined £75,000 plus £15,832 costs after it pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter. The company was sentenced at Antrim Crown Court for criminal safety failings that led to the death of employee Peter Lennon. He was killed as he was carrying out a repair to a large automated machine in September 2012. The investigation found that power to the machine had not been disconnected and during the work the machine moved, crushing and fatally injuring Mr Lennon.

And in February 2015 building firm Peter Mawson Ltd and its owner (Peter Mawson) were sentenced at Preston Crown Court following the death of Jason Pennington. In October 2011, he had been working on a roof and had fallen through a skylight from a height of around 7.6 meters onto a concrete floor. The company had earlier pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and a breach of the HSWA. It was fined £200,000 for the corporate manslaughter offence, and £20,000 for the health and safety breach. Peter Mawson also pleaded guilty to a breach of the HSWA and was sentenced to the following: eight months in prison, suspended for two years; 200 hours unpaid work; a publicity order to advertise what happened on the company website, to take out a half page spread in the local newspaper; and pay costs of £31,504.77.

In September 2014, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that it had charged Baldwins Crane Hire Ltd with corporate manslaughter over the death of crane driver Lindsay Easton. He died when the mobile crane he was driving left the road and crashed into an earth bank in Scout Moor in Edenfield, Lancashire in August 2011.

Other companies have faced corporate manslaughter charges but have been acquitted:

Norfolk-based flower nursery operator PS & JE Ward was found not guilty of corporate manslaughter at Norwich Crown Court in April 2014. The trial followed the death of tractor driver Grzegorz Krystian Pieton who was electrocuted in July 2010. The trailer he was towing touched an overhead power line while he was working at Belmont Nursery near King’s Lynn. The company was found guilty of breaching the HSWAand was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £47,932 in costs in June 2014. The judge gave the directors, Peter and Janet Ward, three years to pay the fine.

In June 2014, the mine manager and mine owner of the Gleision Mine, in which four miners drowned in September 2011, were found not guilty of manslaughter at Swansea Crown Court. Charles Breslin, Philip Hill, Garry Jenkins and David Powell were killed when the mine in which they were working was engulfed by an enormous inrush of water. Following the verdict, Thompsons solicitors, which represented the families of the mineworkers who died, said: “Getting a conviction on a charge of corporate manslaughter is very difficult as the prosecution has to prove the manager’s actions amounted to gross negligence which is a hugely difficult legal burden. You can be careless, you can be negligent — and have men die as a result — but unless it is gross negligence you walk free”.