The directors of two companies have been jailed after a wall collapse led to the death of five workers. Both firms have been ordered to pay £1.6 million in fines
Wayne Anthony Hawkeswood and Graham John Woodhouse ran a metal recycling company in Birmingham, where a wall collapsed over and killed five workers.
The two men were charged on multiple counts after a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court in November 2022. On Monday, 15 May 2023, they both received nine-month custodial sentences.
Ousmane Kaba Diaby, Saibo Sumbundu Sillah, Bangally Tunkara Dukuray, Almamo Kinteh Jammeh, and Mahamadou Jagana Jagana died after a 45-tonne wall collapsed upon them. The men were agency workers employed at the Nechells site in Birmingham. The site was managed by Nechells site in Birmingham.
The wall had been taken apart and reassembled
The wall was 12 feet high and constructed on-site using 30 concrete blocks. Each block was a similar size to a household fridge-freezer and weighed the same as a large family car. In July 2016, eight agency workers, including the five men, were assigned to the site. At 8 am, they were asked to clear a bay area filled with metal filings to create space for additional scrap metal.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the wall had previously been taken down and then reassembled. The adjoining bay contained 263 tonnes of scrap metal briquettes. The combined weight of the machine-pressed metal briquettes was the equivalent of six fully loaded HGVs.
Both Directors were guilty of four charges. Hawkeswood Metal Recycling Limited and Ensco 10101 Limited were also found guilty of the two identical counts bringing the total number of convictions to 12 by virtue of section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Fundamentally unsafe conditions led to the wall collapse
Hawkeswood Metal Recycling was fined £1m for the wall collapse. Ensco 10101 Limited were fined £600,000. The judge ruled that prosecution costs amounting to £775,000 should be paid.
“I hope the families and friends of the men who died find some comfort in today’s sentencing,” commented HSE principal inspector Amy Kalay.
“The investigation into this incident was long and complex. Five men lost their lives in the most appalling of circumstances. Their deaths should not have happened. They went to work to earn a wage; that cost them their lives,” she continued.
“These five men were placed into a working environment that was fundamentally unsafe. The failings of the companies and individuals brought to justice today were responsible for this tragedy,” she concluded.
The families of the workers, who hailed from Gambia and Senegal, strongly condemned the negligence of Shredmet and Hawkeswood Metal Recycling, labelling their failures as “outrageous and unforgivable”.
