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Company director guilty of manslaughter jailed for 12 months
Colin Cooper, director of IC Roofing Ltd, has today (27/01/2009) been sentenced to 12 months in custody after being found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence. Darren Hoofe an employee died after he fell 6m through a rooflight in November 2005. Mr Cooper has also been disqualified as a director for three years and his company fined £20k.
Judge Scott-Gall said: Mr Hoofe was “wholly untrained to work at height, not supervised at the “critical time”, and provided with inadequate and insufficient materials to do the work safely”. He went on to add that the health and safety practices of Mr Cooper ”were more to impress potential contractors than for the safety of employees”.
HSE Inspector Amanda Huff said: “Colin Cooper had previously received warnings from the HSE and if these warnings had been heeded, Mr Hoofe would not have been killed. If there is to be any positive outcome from this tragic death it has to be that employers realise the seriousness of breaches to health and safety legislation. Ignoring legislation puts people’s lives at risk and can lead to serious consequences in court.”