Oldbury Alutrade's response after £2m fine over worker death

Alutrade Limited has said it accepts full responsibility for Stuart Town's death who had been working for the company for just three months when he suffered "catastrophic" head injuries at the Tat Bank Road site in July 2017.

Mr Towns, aged 34, had walked into an area underneath a hopper, which housed powerful engines used to feed a conveyor belt with scrap metal for processing.

A gate preventing workers from getting to the area had broken, and the machine should have been shut down and isolated if any kind of maintenance or cleaning work needed to be done on it.

READ MORE: Oldbury's Alutrade fined £2m over death of worker

His body was discovered by colleagues minutes later and he died at the scene.

Last month at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Alutrade Ltd admitted corporate manslaughter and were sentenced at the same court today (March 25).

Managing Director Malcolm, aged 55, of Bromsgrove, director Kevin Pugh, aged 46, from Sutton Coldfield, and health and safety manager Mark Redfern, aged 61, of Rowley Regis, were initially charged with Gross Negligence Manslaughter, but instead pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Stuart Towns. Photo: West Midlands Police

They admitted the charge on the basis that their failings didn’t cause the death, but together the management of the company amounted to corporate manslaughter.

George was fined £15,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £7,109, Pugh was fined £5,318 and was ordered to pay £3,854 costs, and Redfern was fined £2,635 and the company was ordered to pay his costs.

Alutrade Ltd was fined £2m with £105,514 costs.

Following the conclusion of the case, a spokesperson for the company said: "We want to again express our deep remorse at the death of Stuart Towns, a valued and much liked employee.

"Stuart died in a tragic accident on our site on 24 July 2017. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. Nothing can bring Stuart back but we trust that these proceedings will have provided his loved ones with some answers.

"We hope that they can draw some comfort from the fact that, as remarked upon by the sentencing judge, the Honourable Mr Justice Martin Spencer, lessons have been learnt and the company has subsequently transformed its approach to managing and enforcing health and safety on site.

"We accept the company is responsible for Stuart’s manslaughter by virtue of gross negligence. We fell short of the required standard by allowing him to work in the immediate vicinity of machinery known as the ‘Biffa Line’ when it was unguarded by lockable gates.

"It was, though, acknowledged by the judge that before this tragic accident the company had clearly defined health and safety policies and procedures in place which profiled risks.

"It had a good health and safety record, but sadly as far as the Biffa Line was concerned, the company had not adhered to its policies and procedures in practice.
The company took swift action to remedy the deficiencies highlighted by the accident and the judge gave credit for this in his sentencing remarks.

"He commented that the company’s approach to health and safety is now very different to what it was in 2017 and it has successfully transformed its standards of risk management.

"The directors are passionate in their commitment to ensuring that the company’s premises at Oldbury will be the safest metal recycling site in Europe and they believe that they are close to reaching this goal."