Skip Hire Company Owner Escapes Jail

The owner of a skip hire firm in the West Midlands has been given a two year suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence of one of his employees.

Bikram Mahli was ordered also to pay costs of £10,000 and banned from being a director of a company for 10 years.

The company itself was fined £600,000 but has entered voluntary liquidation.

Tragically Jagpal Singh died of head injuries on 28 June 2012 after falling from a skip at the firm’s premises.

Judge James Burbridge, QC, told the Court it was difficult to see whether human life was valued at all on site.

Judge Burbridge, QC, said: “Bikram Singh Mahli allowed a woefully inadequate system of work where there were significant failures to segregate workers from plant machinery.  As a consequence, this led directly to the death of Jagpal Singh.”

This case is direct evidence that companies should ensure that they have strong and robust health and safety systems in place to ensure that if accidents do occur, all that could possibly have been done has been taken care of.

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