Firm is fined £480,000 for man’s death

A TAMESIDE company has been fined almost half a million pounds for corporate manslaughter following the death of an employee who fell more than 40ft as he worked on the roof.

Lion Steel Equipment Ltd pleaded guilty to the offence following the incident at its factory in Johnson Brook Road, Hyde, in May 2008.

The company was fined £480,000, to be paid over four years, plus £84,000 in costs.

Steven Berry (45), a maintenance worker at the company which produced steel cabinets and shelving, fell through a Perspex sheet in the roof on to a stone floor below as he tried to fix a leak. He suffered fatal head injuries.

An investigation into his death found that Lion Steel had offered him no training related to work at that height. It also found sections of the roof were fragile, that there had been no risk analysis concerning roof work and that the company had made little attempt to understand the dangers involved.

Charges were brought in June, 2011.

At an earlier hearing, charges of manslaughter and neglect faced by Lion Steel directors Kevin Palliser (59), of Rishworth Rise, Shaw, Richard Vaughan Williams (42), of Priory Close, Hawarden, and Graham Coupe (59) of Hampshire Close, Glossop, were dropped, though the company admitted a corporate manslaughter charge.


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