Two companies, Leslie Wright & Son and MMM Design & Build Ltd, were each fined £50,000 after charges were brought against them by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI) for breaches of health and safety legislation.
Leslie Wright & Son pleaded guilty to eight charges and MMM Design & Build Ltd pleaded guilty to two charges at a hearing at Downpatrick Crown Court. The charges relate to a fatality that occurred in 2005 when a 17 year old was killed on his first day at work, after a wall collapsed onto him during demolition works.
MMM, as principal contractor, had failed to ensure that the site was safe and, more importantly that a safe system of work was in force. Leslie Wright & Son had failed to ensure that a safe system of demolition was in place, and that a proper and effective exclusion zone was erected around the structure being demolished. They also failed to provide the worker with any proper safety training.
The court found that these failures were indicative of a high degree of negligence. Nonetheless, the Court considered that the fine (a sentence of imprisonment was not open to the Court) must be commensurate with the offenders' means, which were said to be "somewhat limited." Indeed, the Court felt that they would experience difficulty in paying a fine of any substance.
However, it has been argued that the point of punitive damages is that they should be punishing. Moreover, given the degree of negligence involved and its consequences, it could be construed that the fine imposed by the Court was "somewhat parsimonious."
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