A Wolverhampton-based skip service company has been fined £600,000 and its manager given a suspended two-year prison sentence following the death of a 24-year old site worker.

On 28 June 2012, Jagpal Singh suffered severe internal injuries at the Bilston Skips site in Wolverhampton after falling eight feet from the top of a skip where he was helping to compress green waste. He later died at Cross Hospital.

Singh had been working in the area of two skips and was working in very close proximity to the arm of a JCB excavator, which was being operated by the Company Manager Bikram Singh Mahli. It is not clear if the arm, which was reportedly in ‘poor condition’, made contact with Singh before he fell.

Mahli, who had no health and safety training, had held the titles of both Manager and General Manager of the company since 2011 when the previous manger left. There was no health and safety qualified individual on site or any means for incidents to be reported.

At the trial for the incident, which concluded at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 16 August, Bilston skips, which is now in liquidation, was found guilty of one count of corporate manslaughter and one Section 2 breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) and fined £600,000.

Mahli was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter and one Section 37 HSWA offence, to which he had pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial. His two-year jail sentence was suspended for two years.

“Gross neglect of health and safety measures”

Dan Jones, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which prosecuted the case, said: “Safe working practices were not in place at Bilston Skips Limited. The risk to onsite workers had not been considered and was not managed.

“The gross neglect of health and safety measures by the company and its manager was so serious that it was criminal. It led directly to the fatal incident that killed Jagpal Singh.

“The CPS continues to work with the police and Health & Safety Executive investigators to bring to justice those who fail in their duty of care towards workers, failing their trust and endangering lives.”

More information about health and safety in the waste industry is available in Resource’s previous article.