Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Ltd, fined £8,000 plus costs of £191,000

Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Ltd was charged with the offence, along with its sole director, Mervyn Owens, who faces a charge of gross-negligence manslaughter, in relation to the death of employee, Malcolm Hinton in March 2012.

Mr Hinton was working underneath a road-sweeping truck at Mobile Sweepers’ premises, near Basingstoke when he died from crush injuries. He had inadvertently removed a hydraulic hose, which caused the back of the truck to fall on him.

Mobile Sweepers (Reading) Ltd (MSRL) was fined just £8,000 for the offence, the lowest fine under the corporate manslaughter legislation to date, however its director Mervyn Owens was ordered to pay £191,000 and banned from holding the position of a director for 5 years.

MSRL is the sixth company to be prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter Act since it entered the statute books in 2007.