CAV Aerospace Ltd. convicted of corporate manslaughter and fined £600,000 and £400,000, plus costs of £125,000

CAV Aerospace Ltd. convicted of corporate manslaughter and fined £600,000 and £400,000, plus costs of £125,000

CAV Aerospace Ltd. has been found guilty of corporate manslaughter, following the death of employee, Paul Bowers.

The firm was convicted of two offences and fined twice; £600,000 for Corporate Manslaughter and £400,000 for contravening the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Both fines are to run concurrently. The firm was also ordered to pay £125,000 in prosecution costs.

Mr Bowers died after a stack of metal sheets collapsed on top of him in a warehouse, trapping and crushing him. The metal sheets, which had been delivered to the warehouse at the company’s request and for the company’s purposes, collapsed as a result of the dangerously high levels of stock in the warehouse.

The senior management of CAV Aerospace Ltd. received clear, unequivocal and repeated warnings over a sustained period of years prior to the fatal incident. Some of the most obvious solutions were rejected on cost grounds.

The company was warned ahead of the fatal accident that there were potentially disastrous consequences if nothing significant was done about this. Mr Bowers, one of the most recent additions to the team, became trapped under a stack of raw sheets of metal which fell on top of him as he made his way down a designated safe walkway.

Piers Arnold, of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “This company ignored repeated and clear warnings about the dangers of their stock levels, refusing to take action partly because it was considered too expensive. Paul Bowers and his family have paid the price for the company’s failure to take the action that was so clearly needed. I hope that the company’s conviction today can be a small comfort to his family, and our thoughts are with them at this time.”