Director receives conditional discharge

Prosecutions and Claims |
30.01.2008

Exhibition equipment supplier First Exhibition Services and its director, Richard Turnbull, were prosecuted following the death of 21-year-old Duncan Burden.

Burden was killed in an accident at a warehouse in Bosham, West Sussex. Turnbull was inside the warehouse using a fork-lift truck to stack packing cases while Burden was stationed outside, making sure nobody entered the warehouse during the work.

Burden entered the warehouse for an unknown reason and was fatally crushed by a heavy load falling from Turnbull's forklift.

An HSE investigation revealed that Turnbull - who was previously a health and safety manager with another firm - had loaded the forklift too high.

First Exhibition Services pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to ensure the safety of his employee. Burden pleaded guilty to the same offence by virtue of Section 37 of the same Act.

At Chichester Crown Court on 17 January, the firm was fined £14,000 with £11,000 costs. Turnbull was given a 12-month conditional discharge.

The court heard that Turnbull treated Burden as a son and they lived next door to one another. Dominic Kay, defending, said the accident had had "a devastating impact" on Turnbull, leaving him a "broken man".