|
12
June 2003
| Press
Note |
Company
Director sentenced today after pleading guilty
to health and safety offences which resulted in
death |
Moores
Timber Merchants Ltd was fined a total of £100,000
and its director Michael Broadbent was fined £5,000
at Manchester Crown Court today after they pleaded
guilty earlier in the week to health and safety offences
which resulted in the death of 20 year Mohammed Omar
Akhtar.
Mohammed died on 13th August 1997 when, on the previous
day, a forklift truck, driving out of Moores Timber
Merchants in Manchester struck his car. The forks
of the Fork Lift Truck pierced the windscreen and
sliced into his neck.
The only penalty that the courts could impose upon
Michael Broadbent is a cash fine – a sentence
of imprisonment is not available.
The company is in liquidation.
Judge
Lowcock said about the incident::
The
absence of safety features was lamentable. It must
have been obvious to anyone that there were clear
safety hazards at the yard.
Mr Akhtar's death was an accident waiting to happen.
There were no warnings to motorists that forklift
trucks were operating in the road. There were no
warning marks on the forks that were driven at aboutthe
height of a driver's neck.
Changes only made after Mr Akhtar's death. These
changes were all obvious and inexpensive measures
but came too late to avoid the accident which killed
Mr Akhtar."
About
the fine he stated:
"The
court's sentence must reflect the public anxiety
at the unnecessary death of a young man. This was
a serious and avoidable lack of safety standards.
Because
of your negligence the company failed to carry out
its safety obligations which lead to the death of
Mr Akhtar.
No
penalty I impose can ever remedy the anger felt
by Mr Akhtar's family."
The
company was ordered to pay costs of £69,300.
The judge said that given the state of the company
it was unlikely that any fine would ever be paid on
their behalf.
The prosecution of both defendants for health and
safety offences followed a successful judicial by
Omar Akhtar’s family over an earlier decision
by the HSE not to investigate the death.
To read about the High Court decision, click
here
The
company pleaded guilty to a breaches of section 3(1)
of the health and safety at work act and breaches
of regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations 1992
In
relation to section 3(1) of the HASAWA 1974 charge
it was alleged in the indictment that the company:
"between
the 1st day of January 1995 and 12th day of August
1997, [it] to conduct its undertaking in such a
way as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable,
that person not in its employment were not thereby
exposed to risks to their health and safety arising
from operations involving the loading and unloading
of goods and materials at and outside the company's
premises in Shrewsbury Street, Old Trafford, Manchester
and the movement of goods and materials between
those premises."
In
relation to the breach of the Management of Health
and Safety at Work Regulations, it was alleged that:
"between
the 1st day of January 1995 and 12th day of August
1997, [it] failed to make a suitable and sufficient
assessment of the risks to persons not in its employment
arising from operations involving the loading and
unloading of goods and materials at and outside
the company's premises in Shrewsbury Street, Old
Trafford, Manchester and the movement of goods and
materials between those premises for the purpose
of identifying the measures it needed to take to
comply with section 3(1) of the Health and Safety
at Work Act 1974."
Michael
Broadbent pleaded guilty to an offence under section
37 of the Health and Safety at Work act which involved
proving that the commission of the offence of the
company was the result of 'neglect', or 'consent or
connivance' on his part.
To
see what the HSE said in court, Click
Here
The
Akhters have been supported by Greater Manchester
Hazard Centre. To download GMHC’s press release,
click here
The
CCA's 'Work Related Death Advice Service" provided
assistance to the AKhtar family in relation to the
judicial review and the manslaughter inquiry by the
police that took place after the judicial review.
Extract
from HSE submission in Court, made by Mark Harris,
from 3 Raymond Buildings, given on 9th June 2003
"The
criticism of the company’s conduct can be summarised
as follows:-
| 1 |
There
is a high risk of an incident between vehicles
used in business activities and pedestrians if
the two are not segregated. The risk is well known
and has been well documented in health and safety
literature for many years; |
| 2 |
Those
risks were exacerbated around the premises of
Moores’ Timber by matters such as:-
• The road layout,
• The one way system
• The weight of traffic flow
• The size and relative locations of
the company’s yards,
• Uncontrolled parking. |
| 3 |
The
company had a duty to manage the health and safety
issues arising from its business activities and
to ensure that a suitably safe system of work
was used and established and that its employees
were properly trained to fulfil it; |
| 4 |
However,
the company did not assess, adequately or at all,
the risks arising from those activities and in
particular did not assess the risks associated
with using the fork lift truck on the public highway; |
| 5 |
Consequently
the company did not implement a safe system of
work which took into account the locality, the
vehicles to be used and the appropriate training
of personnel. |
In
written answers to questions put to him (again in
writing) under caution, Mr Broadbent accepted:-
| 1 |
that
he had been a director of the company since June
1992 and had previously been the General Manager |
| 2 |
That
he spent the majority of his working day at the
company’s premises |
| 3 |
That
he had written and signed the health and safety
policy document of the company dated 23rd July
1997 in which he stated that:- "The overall
and final responsibility for Health and Safety
in the company is that of Mr. P.M. Broadbent." |
It
is the prosecution's case, even if it said that at
any point during the indictment period Mr Broadbent
did not have exclusive responsibility for health and
safety matters, as a director of the company and the
senior day-to-day manager of it, he has the responsibility
to ensure that the company complied with its statutory
obligations and that through his neglect the company
failed to do so. That there were reasonably practicable
steps that could have been taken to ensure safety
is demonstrated by the remedial measures that after
the accident."
CCA contact details: 020 7 490 4494 or 07766 598274
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