South Bank agency fined £250,000 over demise of Gary Lee James

A haulage firm has been fined £250,000 after a employee was critically injured when a metallic body fell on a delivery container.

Gary Lee James, a yard hand on the depot of Ward Brothers (Malton) Ltd in South Bank, Teesside, was unloading frames of clothes weighing 120 kilograms (18st 13 lb). When in January 2019, he was trapped behind a container after 5 heavy racks collapsed.

The 30-year-old man, from Middlesbrough, died three days later of asphyxiation, cardiac arrest and mind harm.

The firm pleaded responsible to well being and security breaches and was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court, with the choose listening to that the damaging work was being carried out by “trial and error”.

On Friday the court docket was informed Mr James, of Ida Road, and a 16-year-old boy had been finishing up harmful work at midnight with out exhausting hat or ample coaching.

Adam Birkby, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), described the agency as having “introduced an ad-hoc and ultimately unsafe working system, which was not effectively communicated to staff, who were left largely unsafe to determine their own methods”.

He stated he beforehand informed workers struggling on work days: “I don't care how you do it, just keep doing it.”

They had been additionally informed to stack the frames vertically slightly than horizontally to suit extra in a container, and 6 untethered frames turned bent contained in the container after being moved over the Christmas interval.

Mr James and a colleague tried to reinstate him on January 8.

As he moved one body, the opposite 5 pinned Mr James down, till different employees – who wanted a flashlight to see into the container – managed to get him off.

An skilled HSE inspector concluded that the work was performed by “trial and error”, with employees “left to their own devices to dismantle, remove and store the welded frames”.

Mr Birkby stated the corporate “fell far short of the appropriate standard by failing to apply standards recognized in the industry”.

Statements from family members stated Mr James's demise had left them “broken”.

His father, Paul, expressed “disgust” in direction of the corporate, saying he had not had contact for the reason that incident, whereas his companion, Charlene Brown, recalled the morning earlier than his demise.

“Gary kissed my forehead on the way out and said ‘see you later’.

“Don't expect your partner to go to work and not come home. I can't even imagine recovering from this loss.”

The company, which had a turnover of around £15.9m in 2024, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its duty to ensure the health and safety of workers.

The charge followed the completion of Mr James's inquest in January this year, in which a jury found that the company's failings led to his death.

Simon Kelly Casey, defending, said company director Steven Ward, who is vice-chairman of the Northern branch of the Road Haulage Association, expressed “deep sorrow” to Mr James's family for their loss, which the company felt “at the highest level”.

The prosecution accepted that Mr Ward was not aware of the change in stacking the frames vertically.

Mr Kelly said the family firm had been running since the 1990s and had otherwise been “a safe place to work” with an “exemplary” well being and security document.

He stated the corporate had since recruited well being and security specialists to the location and had stopped the work which had value Mr James his life.

Mr Kelly described the agency's monetary place as “extremely precarious” with a revenue margin of lower than 1%, and stated the effective would put jobs in danger.

Passing sentence, Judge Francis Laird Casey, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, expressed his “deepest sympathy” to Mr James's household, saying his demise had left an “enormous void”.