Denis Thornhill and his company D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Limited were fined a combined £16,000 after 64-year-old Mark Young was killed at Moss Hall Farm on 1 February 2021.

Earlier this year, Thornhill and the company been found guilty of breaching health and safety legislation following a six-week trial at Chester Crown Court. The jury cleared 78-year-old Thornhill on a charge of gross negligence manslaughter. They returned to the same court last week to be sentenced.

During the trial, the court was told that Young, who worked as a roofer, had been asked to make repairs to a roof panel and fix a blocked gutter on the same building. As he was walking across the roof, he damaged a second roof panel so a replacement was purchased to carry out an additional repair.

He returned with his son three days later to complete the work and asked to be raised up to do it. Thornhill arrived with a forklift truck that had a potato box balanced on its forks.

Young was lifted up inside the potato box to a height of around 16 feet, while his son, who was on the roof, attempted to reposition the panel from above. As Young moved to one side of the potato box, it caused it to overbalance and he fell to the floor and sustained fatal head injuries.

The potato box used to lift Mark Young was unsecured to the forklift truck with him inside it

HSE Inspector Ian Betley said after the hearing: “This was a tragic incident that could so easily have been avoided.

“The forklift truck and potato box were the wrong pieces of equipment for the job and never a suitable platform for working at height. The work should instead have been carried out using a tower scaffold, scissor lift, or a cherry picker.

“In bringing the forklift truck and potato box and using it to lift Mark at height, the company was in control of the work but had failed to implement proper planning and safe execution of it.

“All companies have a legal duty to ensure the safety of workers they employ or who carry out work for them. If that had happened in this case, then Mark’s life wouldn’t have been lost.”

A joint investigation by Cheshire Constabulary and the HSE found that on the day of the accident there was no safe system of work implemented for working at height and unsuitable work equipment was used.

Denis Thornhill of Tarporley, Cheshire was cleared of manslaughter but was also found guilty of safety breaches and was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,000.

D.S. Thornhill (Rushton) Limited of Tarporley, Cheshire was also found guilty of safety breaches and was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.