The company was in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday over a crane accident at Wavertree Technology Park in 2007. A telescopic all terrain crane, overloaded while lifting a 6t steel column, tipped over. The load hit and killed 46-year-old crane supervisor Mark Thornton.
Mr Thornton was working for Siteweld Construction Ltd, rebuilding a warehouse on the business park. The crane had been hired from Bryn Thomas, with the operator, to lift steel beams.
The court heard that the crane was found to have missing screws, faulty override switches and an insufficient external audible overload alarm.
Judge Nigel Gilmour said that he was unable to impose an appropriate fine of £300,000 on Bryn Thomas because it had since gone into administration. Instead he fined it just £4,500.
Also in the dock was the crane driver who overloaded the crane, 46-year-old Frederick Scott of Flatt Lane, Ellesmere Port. He was fined £2,500. The judge said that Scott had not been trained properly and had shown a “high degree of incompetence”.
Sentencing, Judge Nigel Gilmour said: "Mr Scott either should not have been employed or should have been given sufficient training. His failure to take reasonable care was not born out of deliberate risk taking, but a lack of experience and skills. He is guilty of a high degree of incompetence but he was previously a man of good character."
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