£620,000 fine for slurry pit death

Prosecutions and Claims |
15.09.2007

A meat rendering firm whose employee died when he fell into a pit of animal waste has been fined £620,000.

John Pointon and Sons of Cheddleton, Staffordshire, was fined on 20 July at Stafford Crown Court. The judge said the company's attitude to a health and safety structure was "flimsy and ineffective" and its failure to respond to earlier incidents was an "aggravating feature".

Glyn Thompson died in August 2004 after being overcome by fumes while trying to rescue his colleague, Ivan Torr, who had slipped and fallen into a machine used for rendering animal carcasses. The court heard that company director Carl Pointon had lowered Thompson by crane over the pit. Torr and Thompson were rescued by the fire brigade and taken to hospital, where Thompson later died.

In May, Carl Pointon and the firm itself were both cleared of manslaughter charges. But the company was found guilty of failing to provide a safe system of work and failing to provide suitable arrangements for rescue from the pit, breaching the Confined Spaces Regulations. The firm admitted not having a risk assessment.

Bernard Thorogood, prosecuting, told the court there had been very little health and safety, and confined spaces training. He said the company had given "insufficient or very little thought" to safe methods of working.

The company was fined £480,000 for breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act; £40,000 for breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations; and £50,000 each for offences under Regulations 4(2) and 5(1) of the Confined Spaces Regulations. It was also ordered to pay £80,000 costs.

Judge Simon Tonking said there had been various incidents that "should have urged the company to look at its health and safety, but they were ignored ... Had there been a proper health and safety culture, problems would have amounted to a wake-up call or warning".

On 11 July, an inquest recorded  an accidental death verdict in the case of farm manager Robert Davies, who was found collapsed in a slurry valve chamber at Cockington Farm in Abbotsham, Devon, on 4 December 2005.

Evidence suggests Davies climbed into the underground valve chamber - to investigate a leak or check a valve - and was overcome by toxic gases. Following an investigation, the HSE has decided not to pursue a prosecution.