Examples of convictions for corporate manslaughter



The first prosecution for corporate manslaughter, against Cotswold Geotechnical Services in February 2011, resulted in a fine of only £385,000. The company was prosecuted over the death of geologist, Alexander Wright. Wright had been left working alone in a 3.5m deep trench which was not supported by timbers after the managing director of the company had left for the day. He 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.



In July 2015, the director of Huntley Mount Engineering Ltd, became the first director of a company convicted of corporate manslaughter to be jailed for health and safety offences, after the death of apprentice Cameron Minshull, 16. He died after being allowed to use dangerous and defective equipment without any meaningful supervision. Huntley Mount was fined £150,000 while the director was jailed for eight months and disqualified from being a company director for 10 years. An agency, Lime People Training Solutions, was fined £75,000 for placing the young apprentice in a dangerous working environment.



In February 2016, care home company Sherwood Rise Ltd was fined £300,000 for corporate manslaughter following the death of 86-year old resident Ivy Atkin, the first conviction under the Act against a care home. Mrs Atkin, who suffered from dementia, was found dehydrated and malnourished at the Autumn Grange care home in Nottingham in 2012. Yousaf Khan, the director responsible for the home’s daily operation, was sentenced to three years and two months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence and was disqualified from being a company director for eight years.


Two of the 26 companies have been convicted of manslaughter charges over the last 12 months. In July 2017, Martinisation (London) Ltd was fined £1.2 million for each of two deaths and also fined £650,000 for health and safety breaches. The sentences were concurrent, meaning the total fine payable was £1.2 million — the highest fine to date. The director of the company was sentenced to 14-months’ imprisonment for health and safety offences (half in prison and half on licence) and disqualified from being a company director for four years. Tomasz Procko and Karol Symanski fell to their deaths in November 2014. Victorian railings they were relying on for safety gave way as they were attempting to haul a heavy sofa up on to a balcony using ropes. 


In October 2017, Master Construction Products (Skips) Ltd was fined £255,000 following the death of factory worker Safi Qais Khan. He died in January 2015 after becoming entangled in a trommel machine used to sort waste material. The company had failed to act on previous warnings about health and safety. The sole director of the company was also sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 300 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety law. He was also disqualified as a company director for eight years and ordered to pay £11,500 in prosecution costs. The company went into liquidation before the case came to court. 


In addition, a number of individuals have been convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following work-related deaths. 


For example, two fairground workers were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in May 2018 following the death of a seven-year-old girl who was killed when a bouncy castle was blown away by strong winds with her inside it. 


New Sentencing Council proposals setting out stricter penalties for gross negligence manslaughter, due to come into force at the end of 2018, could see employers facing prison sentences of up to 18 years if they are found guilty of the offence following a work-related death. The proposals can be found on the Sentencing Council website at: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Manslaughter_Draft-guideline.pdf.


Not all corporate and gross negligence manslaughter cases have resulted in convictions. For example, in June 2014, the mine manager and mine owner at the Gleision Mine, in which four miners drowned, were found not guilty of manslaughter at Swansea Crown Court. Miners Charles Breslin, Philip Hill, Garry Jenkins and David Powell were killed when the mine 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.”