Corporate manslaughter. A recycling firm, Alutrade, has become the 29th organisation to be convicted of corporate manslaughter. Stuart Towns, a scrap metal worker, died from head injuries after being struck from above while working at the company's site in Oldbury on 24 July 2017. He was aged 35. The company pleaded guilty to the offence on 11 February at Wolverhampton Crown Court and was due to be sentenced on 18 March. The company's managing director, Malcolm George, production director, Kevin Pugh, and health and safety manager, Mark Redfern, will be sentenced on the same day after they pleaded guilty to an offence under s.2(1) of the HSW Act. In 2015, the HSE served the company with a Notification of Contravention letter because of the absence of gates on a piece of recycling machinery. Although the company installed gates to prevent employees from going under the machine, the gates were again damaged by June 2017 and CCTV showed numerous employees, including Mr Towns, going underneath the machinery. The Crown Prosecution Service said that the company's failure to provide a safe system of work caused the death of Mr Towns: "Senior managers were on notice of issues with the gates, either by being able to see the damaged gates or being informed that they were damaged. However, the machinery was neither isolated, nor were new gates installed. This enabled staff to continue to go under the machinery whilst it was in operation." HSB will carry a full report in the next issue.
展开▼
