First firm to be tried under Corporate Manslaughter Act loses
appeal
Health & Safety update - 17/05/2011
An appeal by Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd against a
corporate manslaughter conviction has been lost.
The Gloucestershire-based firm was the first to be tried and
convicted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide
Act 2007 following the death of a male employee.
Twenty-seven year-old geologist, Alexander Wright, was
asphyxiated in September 2008 while taking soil samples from a
housing development site in Brimscombe Lane, near Stroud.
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd was fined £385,000 at
Winchester Crown Court in February of this year for failing to
ensure his safety in the workplace. Last week, the firm appealed
the corporate manslaughter conviction but lost the case at London's
Court of Appeal. The full fine was also upheld by Lord Chief
Justice, Lord Judge, according to the BBC.
The company - which is now described a being in a 'parlous'
financial state - has been allowed to pay back the fine over a
ten-year period, at £38,500 a year. Lord Judge said it was
'unavoidable and inevitable' that, in order to pay the fine, the
firm would probably have to go into liquidation.