Yard manager jailed and company fined £400,000 after employee fell into shredder

Manager jailed over man’s death in shredder

A yard manager has been jailed for seven-and-half years and a company fined £400,000 after an employee was killed in an industrial shredder.

David Willis, 29, fell inside a machine designed for shredding wood and commercial waste at Timmins Waste Services (TWS) in Mander Street, Wolverhampton, on September 15 2018.

His remains were never found.

TWS and yard manager Brian Timmins, 54, who was operating the diesel-powered machine at the time, were found guilty of corporate manslaughter and manslaughter respectively last week after a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The jury could not reach a verdict on a charge of perverting the course of justice against Timmins and the prosecution decided not to seek a retrial on this count.

Sentencing on Friday, judge Mr Justice Jacobs said “no words of mine can convey the tragedy” for the family of Mr Willis, who he described as a “hardworking young man” and a “devoted son and brother”.

He said: “The family’s lives have been forever blighted by what would often be called an industrial accident. But the word accident sometimes conveys the idea that what happened was bad luck.

“In the present case, however, the accident and Dave’s death was the result of the wholesale neglect of a proper approach to health and safety at Timmins Waste, and a complete disregard both by Brian Timmins and the company of their duty to exercise reasonable care to keep employees such as David Willis safe at work.

“This was an accident which was waiting to happen.”

Operating the shredder with Mr Willis in a vulnerable position was grossly negligent, and fell far below what could be expected of a competent yard manager in his position

Rosemary Ainslie, CPS

The trial had heard “systemic failures” led to the “horrific” incident in which Mr Willis lost his life.

On the day of Mr Willis’s death, Timmins, of Fair Lawn, Albrighton, Shropshire, had been operating the shredder when it stopped “abruptly”.

After investigating the machine, he used a digger to lift Mr Willis on top and inside to see what the problem was.

CCTV evidence showed the machine was still operational at the time but should have been turned off.

When Mr Willis disappeared inside the machine, Timmins was seen on CCTV looking around the yard and inside the shredder’s hopper, which guides the waste towards the machine’s blades, before calling Mr Willis’s phone.

He was then seen looking out of the yard gates and running around the site, before returning to the digger and continuing to operate the shredder.

The next day, Timmins, and other employees who were working that day, loaded and disposed of 80 tonnes of recycled waste by taking it to a landfill site in Cannock, Staffordshire, which “must”, prosecutor Christine Agnew KC said, have included the remains of Mr Willis.

Mr Willis, who lived with his mother, Caroline, was reported missing by her on the evening of September 15 when he did not return to their home to Tipton.

The trial heard Mrs Willis called Timmins just before 11pm to ask if he had seen her son, but he said words to the effect of: “Not since this morning when he left and walked up the road.”

Timmins only reported the incident to police on Monday September 17 2018 after Mr Willis’ coat was found at work.

Mr Justice Jacobs said the “extremely powerful” shredder came with a “detailed and well written operator’s manual which explained in clear language how to operate it safely, and the obvious and serious risks of death and injury which needed to be guarded against” but Timmins had failed to read it.

He said the yard manager had shown “blatant disregard for a very high risk of death”.

He told the court: “Even if Mr Timmins did not actually know that David Willis was still up there, his conduct in switching on the machine again, without checking whether Dave had come down, was – to use the legal test for gross negligence manslaughter – exceptionally bad.

“He had not seen David Willis come down from the shredder. He did not lift him down, and he did not see Dave walk past him on the way out.

“He did not hear Dave say anything to him, such as goodbye. He did not see him pick up his coat and leave the yard.

“In his evidence, Mr Timmins accepted that he should have checked before switching on the machine again. It is absolutely obvious that he should have done so.

“Had he done so, David Willis would still be alive.”

The judge gave TWS six years to pay the £400,000 fine imposed and ordered that they also pay costs of £29,815 to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and £1,874 to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Timmins must serve two-thirds of his seven-and-a-half year sentence behind bars before he can be released on licence.

In a statement released after the sentencing, Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS special crime division, said: “Timmins and the company owed David Willis a duty of care, but there were gross breaches of safety standards at every turn.

“Timmins was in day-to-day control of the yard and therefore must have been very well aware of the systemic and wide-ranging safety breaches by the company, as were its directors.

“Operating the shredder with Mr Willis in a vulnerable position was grossly negligent, and fell far below what could be expected of a competent yard manager in his position.

“Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Mr Willis, and I hope this sentence brings them some sense of justice.”

Gail Bell, HSE inspector, said: “This was a tragic incident. Mr Willis’ death could have been prevented if Timmins Waste Services had implemented a safe system of work and safely isolated the waste shredder.

“Our thoughts remain with the friends and family of Mr Willis.”

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