Two company directors have been jailed after a wall collapsed killing five men – with both firms having to pay combined fines of £1.6million.
Wayne Anthony Hawkeswood and Graham John Woodhouse ran a Birmingham metal recycling business where a wall toppled over and killed five workers.
The pair were found guilty on multiple counts after a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court in November last year. They were back at the same court on Monday 15 May where they each received nine-month custodial sentences…
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the wall had previously been taken down then reassembled. The adjoining bay was full of around 263 tonnes of scrap metal briquettes – each roughly the size of a large tin of vegetables. The combined weight of the machine-pressed metal briquettes was the equivalent of six fully loaded HGVs.