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, Zaffar Hussain, 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 Mr Hussain 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.



More recently, in March 2017 a company admitted corporate manslaughter and three directors were jailed following the death of Benjamin Edge, who fell from the roof of a shed being demolished at Fletcher Bank Quarry in Greater Manchester. A joint investigation by Greater Manchester Police and the HSE found that he was working in wet and windy conditions without safety equipment.


Christopher and Robert James Brown, directors of SR and RJ Brown, were jailed for 20 months for perverting the course of justice. Manchester Crown Court heard that they and an employee had conspired to cover up the events that led to Edge's death. The company admitted corporate manslaughter charges and was fined £300,000.


Mark Aspin, director of MA Excavations, a groundworks company that contracted SR and RJ Brown to demolish the shed, was also jailed for 12 months and his company fined £150,000 for health and safety offences. They failed to carry out checks to ensure that SR and RJ Brown could carry out the work safely.


In addition, a number of individuals have been convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following work-related deaths. For example, in October 2016 the owner of a Devon-based gutter cleaning and painting company, Colin Jeffery, was handed down a five-year prison sentence at Exeter Crown Court after being found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of 17-year old employee Beau Jennians. The young worker died in December 2014 after falling from a ladder while painting the eaves of a house in Devon. Jeffery also pleaded guilty to health and safety offences at other properties in the Torbay area. 


Detective Inspector Steve Davies from Devon and Cornwall Police Major Crime Team said that Jeffery “operated his business with total disregard for the safety of his employees and had a cavalier attitude to health and safety.”


In June 2017, the site manager and director of Conquest Homes, Andrew Winterton, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter and jailed for four years (two in custody and two on licence) following the death of Shane Wilkinson. He was buried underneath rubble when an unsecured trench collapsed on him on a building site in Northamptonshire in September 2014. A self-employed digger driver, Dean Wortley, who incorrectly excavated the trench, was also found guilty of health and safety offences and jailed for 12 months (six in custody, six on licence). The two were also ordered to pay costs of £90,500 and £20,000 respectively.


Not all prosecutions for corporate and gross negligence manslaughter 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”.