Corporate manslaughter investigation concludes
5 July 2007
Two men were today sentenced having admitted charges of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of an employee at the Norwich branch of The Concrete Company in 2005. Christopher Meachen died after becoming caught in an unguarded slew conveyer which carried aggregate and sand up to the hoppers where cement is manufactured.
The Concrete Company's area manager, Roy Burrows, and its managing director, Timothy Dighton, pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter. Dighton also admitted a range of breaches of health and safety regulations. They were both jailed.
The Concrete Company itself had also admitted charges of manslaughter and breaches of health and safety law. It was fined £75,000 with costs of £89,000.
The case was prosecuted by William Coker QC.
The Concrete Company had over 104 employees and a turnover of £11 million. It is the largest company to have been convicted of the common-law offence of gross negligence manslaughter. The conviction represents one of the few instances when a corporate body has been successfully prosecuted for this offence. To date, a company could only be successfully prosecuted for manslaughter if it could be shown that a "directing mind" - for example the company's managing director - was also guilty. Public concern over a number of major disasters where no corporations were prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter has been, in part, behind The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill now before Parliament. This will become law in the near future. It creates a statutory offence of corporate manslaughter, punishable with an unlimited fine. The offence applies to public and private bodies including the police and Ministry of Defence. It promises to bring the conduct of a company's senior managers and directors under renewed scrutiny.