Alexander Wright, 27, had been left working alone in a 3.5m deep trench which was not supported by timbers after the managing director of the company, Cotswold Geotechnical Services, 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 ten 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.

And 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. It was the third company in the UK to be found guilty of such an offence when it pleaded 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 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 were 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 Princes Sporting 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; and

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 following a breach of the Health and Safety Act. This followed the death of Malcolm Hinton who died from crush injuries after working on a repair beneath a road-sweeping truck in 2012;

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. 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.

In January 2013, the CPS announced that both the manager and the company who operated the Gleision Colliery were to face manslaughter charges. Charles Breslin, Philip Hill, Garry Jenkins and David Powell were killed in September 2011 when the mine in which they were working was flooded by 500,000 gallons of water. It is alleged that the mine manager caused the deaths of the four miners by mining into old, previously flooded mine workings, contrary to safety regulations. The case was sent to Swansea Crown Court and the trial began in March 2014. The manager and company owner were found not guilty of manslaughter. 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”.

Sterecycle (Rotherham) Limited was charged with corporate manslaughter in October 2013, following an explosion in 2011 which lead to the death of employee Michael Winfrey. The explosion occurred when the door to the autoclave that he was working on blew out under pressure. Another operator was also seriously injured in the same explosion at this recycling plant. The case goes to trial in October 2014.

Pyranha Mouldings Ltd, a canoe and kayak manufacturer, is facing corporate manslaughter charges after Alan Caterall, who worked at the factory for 10 years, died after being trapped in an industrial oven in 2010. He is believed to have become trapped in the oven while cleaning machinery. A preliminary hearing was held in March 2014.