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Geotech company first charged under Corporate Manslaughter Act
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings is the first company to be accused of corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CMCH).
The charge concerns the death of Alexander Wright, aged 27, an employee who died when an excavation collapsed in September 2008. The young geologist was obtaining soil samples on a site Gloucestershire.
In addition, company director Peter Eaton is charged with gross negligence manslaughter whilst both Mr Eaton and the company face charges under the HSW Act.
Kate Leonard of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime Division, said: “under the CMCH an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the person who died. A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way activities were organised by senior management. I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for this offence.”
The case is scheduled for hearing at Stroud Magistrates Court on 17 June.