DEADLY BUSINESS

Businessmen Behaving Badly

A quick look at what it costs to endanger, maim and kill in UK workplaces

Dartford roofing company Swift Roofing Contracts has been ordered to pay a total of £25,000 in fines and costs after the death of tiler, Alan Mannerings. Contracts manager, Alan Swift, was ordered to pay a total of £12,500. Manslaughter charges were dropped after he agreed to plead guilty to safety offences.

Steel maker Corus has been fined £10,000 and costs of £1,286 after the death of Bob Powlay, 54, who was crushed by a three and a half tonne plate at the pipe works in Portrack, Stockton.

London-based Brown and Mason demolition firm has been fined £40,000 and costs of £3,750 after the death of Jimmy Hall, 21, who was employed on a £12 million contract to demolish Blyth Power Station. A manager's son cut a wire supporting a junction box, which then fell on Mr Hall.

Tyneside company SAI Automotive has been fined £14,000 with £1,540 costs after worker Paul Smith was caught in a spiking machine and suffered horrific injuries including three shattered vertebrae, a punctured lung, broken ribs and a dislocated knee.

Macy Panel Products, Newcastle, was fined £1,500 with £970 costs after an incident where an employee who lost a finger in a factory accident lost another when he demonstrated what went wrong.

United Fish of Aberdeen was fined £16,000 following the death of David Cobban in a fall from a forklift's forks. Forfab of Rothes was fined £4,000 for providing inadequate training to the forklift's driver.

Shanks Waste Service was fined £200,000 after a worker, Herbert Baxter, 50, was dragged into a machine and crushed to death.

Romag Limited, of County Durham was fined just £3,500 following an incident where employee Michael Dodds, 24, was left paralysed in a fall at work.

Park Environmental Services of Newport has been fined £250,000 after chemist Dr John Lane, 28, was killed by exposure to hydrogen sulphide, just five months after another worker had been overcome by fumes.

Una Johnston, director of delivery firm Glenhire, was fined £2,500 for health and safety offences after overworked and exhausted driver Gary Couser, 19, died after asleep and crashing at the wheel.

Tool manufacturing company Forst Broach, Leicester, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,000 costs following an incident where Craig Thompson suffered permanent brain damage when a grinding wheel shattered and pieces became embedded in his skull.

Simons Construction Ltd of Lincoln was fined £40,000 with £20,000 costs following the deaths of two cleaners. Anthony Redfern and Glenn Whalley, employed by subcontractor Norman Cliffe, died when solvent used to clean a floor ignited. Cliffe and a second subcontractor Justin Amos were cleared of manslaughter charges but fined £5,000 and £2,500 respectively with £100 costs each for safety breaches.

Textiles firm Stork Brothers of Birkby was ordered by to pay a £15,000 fine and £1,272 costs after employee David Wilson suffered a fractured skull and other injuries in a 25 foot fall carrying out roof repairs. The company was also instructed to pay Mr Wilson £5,000.

Lloyd Fraser (Distribution) Ltd was fined £35,000 with £7,489 costs following the death of a maintenance fitter who fell through a roof skylight of a Chepstow warehouse operated on behalf of ASDA.

Makewell Ltd (PMI), of Edmonton, and contract firm Rossway Transport Ltd, of Chertsey, were each fined £5,000 and made to pay costs of £5,000 each following the death of teenager. Stephen Sparks, 18, was killed when desks he was unloading from a truck toppled over and crushed him.

Colin White of Colin White Services, Glastonbury, has been fined £15,000 after a forklift overturned in his breaker's yard, killing employee Anthony Maddocks, 43.

Property developer Brian Kunz has been fined £195,000 and costs of £9,250 after demolition worker Mark Wroe was killed in an arch collapse. Builder Alistair Smith, owner of Britannia Construction, was fined £4,000 and £1,000 costs.

Notedome Ltd, of Coventry was fined £18,000 with £2,000 costs after two employees were badly injured when burned when a solvent they were using ignited.

Cambridge building materials firm Eternit UK was fined £40,000 following the death of employee Ciro Dario at the company's factory in Meldreth.

Viasystems EMS UK Ltd, of Coventry was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £2,000 compensation to an employee who was injured while trying to free up a punch press line.

Lincolnshire Roadcar Company Limited has been fined £18,000 after maintenance fitter David Dyble - whose request for the inside of a tank to be cleaned of fuel had been ignored - suffered severe burns when his overalls caught light while welding.

Westwood Yarns Ltd of Holmfirth was fined £4,000 with £799 costs after employee Robert Napthine broke a finger in a textile carding machine.

The University of Wolverhampton was fined £10,000 with £1,535 costs after a 20-year-old drama student suffered multiple injuries when she fell about three metres from a mobile elevated work platform while rigging lighting in the Arena Theatre.

Northumbrian Water Ltd has been fined £50,000 and costs of £10,000 after employee David Mason was crushed to death between his crane and a passing bus while doing water main repairs on a public road.

Transport group Wincanton has been fined £180,000 and £19,634.40 costs for failing to manage safely its Belchley transport depot, resulting in the death of shunter Michael John Flint, 53, who was struck from behind by a reversing tractor unit.

Brian Dean, the former owner of a Staffordshire demolition firm, was jailed for 18 months for the manslaughter of father and son Michael and Carl Redgate, who were killed when a kiln they were dismantling collapsed.

Klargester Environmental was fined £250,000 for three breaches of health and safety legislation following the death of machine operator Ronald Leslie Glue, 61, whose head was crushed while he was setting a vacuum-forming machine.

Construction company PC Harringtons Ltd of Harrow was fined £18,000 after employee Skimout Suchodolski, 42, fell five metres onto a concrete floor and suffered severe head injuries.

Caerphilly-based plant hire firm Maxxiom was fined a total of £180,000 and ordered to pay £19,767 in legal costs after pleading guilty to breaches of safety legislation following the crushing death of maintenance fitter Ernest Berry, 52.

MKG (Food Products) Ltd. of Wolverhampton was fined £25,000 after two employees suffered partial finger amputations. Earlier in the month the company was fined £21,000 including costs for other serious safety offences.

McLean and Gibson (Engineers) was fined £30,000 after employee Thomas Henderson, 46, was crushed to death on a demolition site by a plastic barrel containing 250 kilogrammes of nuts and bolts.

Dockyard company A & P Falmouth Ltd was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,627.40 after two "core casual" workers were overcome by solvent fumes while working in a confined space.

Two construction firms have each been ordered to pay a £40,000 fine and nearly £16,400 in costs after a nine-year-old boy was crushed to death. Haslam Homes Ltd and Atlas Building and Civil Engineering did not prepare a proper health and safety plan.

Billington Structures has been fined £200,000 after the life of Andrew Kitchen, 43, was "wasted" last year during development work at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane ground. The construction company's poor safety record includes a £10,000 fine in 1999 after a worker was crushed to death and a further safety prosecution in 2000.

Construction firm Austin Brickwork Ltd and company director Julian Austin been fined a total of £60,000 plus costs at Southampton Crown Court. A forklift truck driven by an untrained company employee knocked down and killed labourer Kevin Moyle.

Railway maintenance company Jarvis Facilities Ltd has been fined £7,000 plus £368 prosecution costs for using unsafe practices. The prosecution followed an incident where several sub-contract workers had to jump clear when a train collided with a trolley loaded with welding equipment.

MacFarlane Packaging of Glasgow was fined £3,000 for health and safety offences relating to the death of forklift driver Thomas Munro,

Building firm SDC Builders Ltd, Bedford was fined £100,000 with costs of £60,000 for two breaches of health and safety legislation following the death of carpenter David Newell, 59, who was knocked down and killed by a reversing delivery van on the site access road as he left work. Van driver Paul Jones was fined £3,000 plus £250 costs.

Aberdeen-based Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK) Ltd was fined £75,000 for breaches of safety law following the death of oil rig worker Peter Gray on the Diamond Princess drilling rig.

Construction firm Jackson Civil Engineering Ltd was fined £30,000 with £10,000 costs and their contractor Christopher Nicholson was fined £7,500 with £4,991 costs, following the death of labourer Neville Cook, 34, who was struck by an excavator and crushed during construction work.

Northern Ireland based Loughadoo Aggregates and director Desmond Loughran were fined a total of £3,000 for failing to guard dangerous machinery at their sand and gravel processing site despite a series of HSE enforcement notices.

Construction was fined £10,000 at the Old Bailey after employee Trevor Mucolli suffered 14 per cent burns after drilling through an 11,000 volt cable.

BP was fined £1 million for safety breaches at its Grangemouth plant for incidents that occurred within three days of one another in June 2000. In one incident a steam pipe close to a main road exploded, injuring a member of the public. In the second a leak of flammable gas in another part of the plant caused a major fire that led to five BP workers "running for their lives".

Whitbread plc was fined £5,000 at Warley Magistrates Court following an incident where a young worker was scalded while emptying a pasta cooker despite the company being told previously by local environmental health officers to make changes to the system of work.

Crapper and Sons Ltd was fined £10,000 following the death of a 42-year-old man who was crushed to death by an excavator.

John Laing Homes Ltd was fined £40,000 after a 53-year-old plumber was seriously injured when struck by a telescopic materials handler.

Midland Sections and Shearing Ltd was fined £7,000 after an 18-year-old female employee's finger was crushed in a poorly guarded press.

London Underground was fined £225,000 and ordered to pay more than £15,600 costs after a judge accused the company of "sacrificing safety" in order to keep the trains running "at all costs". Previously David Elkington, a former Tube signal operations manager nicknamed "Dangerous Dave," was labelled by the courts a "dictatorial bully" by the courts and ordered to pay £5,000 in fines and compensation.