Tameside Company Fined Over £500,000 After Worker Death

20 July 2012, 16:13 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Lion Steel Equipment Ltd in Hyde has been fined £480,000 and £84,000 costs after pleading guilty to corporate manslaughter.

Maintenance worker 45 year old Steven Berry fell around 40 feet to his death while workoing on the roof of the company that makes steel cabinets and shelving. 

Back in 2008 he noticed that the roof was leaking and he told one of the directors he intended to go up onto the roof and fix it. 

Steven fell through a Perspex sheet in the roof, into the building and onto a stone floor about 40 feet below and suffered fatal head injuries. 

An inquiry found he hadn't been offered the proper Health and Safety training. 

In a statement, Steven's widow Hilary said: "Steven was an honest, hard working man who went to work to do the job he was instructed to do. He, along with every other employee in this country was entitled to be kept safe in his work environment. 

"Lion Steel's complete and utter disregard for the laws that were there to keep my husband safemeans that my daughters no longer have a father and I now face life without the person who was by my side for over 20 years. 

"Companies must sit up and take notice of the utter devastation that deaths in the workplace cause, the impact of which goes far beyond the immediate family."