A health and safety inspector has said the death of a roofing contractor at a Cheshire farm was a "tragic incident that could so easily have been avoided".

Previously we reported Denis Thornhill, 78 and the company which he is a director of, DS Thornhill (Rushton) Limited, were each found responsible for health and safety failings in the moments which led to the death of 64-year-old Mark Young at Moss Hill Farm, Rushton, near Tarporley.

Thornhill had also stood accused of gross negligence manslaughter in the six-week trial, and the jury acquitted him of that.

Sentencing at the same court on Friday, October 11, The Honourable Mr Justice Stephen Morris fined Thornhill £4,000 and ordered him to pay £4,000 costs, while the company was ordered to pay a £12,000 fine with £10,000 costs.

During the trial, the court was told that on January 29, 2021, Mr Young, who worked as a roofer, had been asked to make repairs to a roof panel and fix a blocked gutter on the same building. However, as he was walking across the roof, he damaged a second roof panel so a replacement was purchased to carry out an additional repair.

He returned with his son three days later to complete the work and asked to be raised up to do it. Denis Thornhill arrived with a forklift truck that had a potato box balanced on its forks.

Mr Young was lifted up inside the potato box to a height of around 16 feet, while his son, who was on the roof, attempted to reposition the panel from above. As Mr Young moved to one side of the potato box, it caused it to overbalance and he fell to the floor sustained serious head injuries.

Although paramedics were called, they were unable to resuscitate him and he was pronounced deceased at the scene.

HSE Inspector Ian Betley said after the hearing: “This was a tragic incident that could so easily have been avoided.

“The forklift truck and potato box were the wrong pieces of equipment for the job and never a suitable platform for working at height. The work should instead have been carried out using a tower scaffold, scissor lift, or a cherry picker.

“In bringing the forklift truck and potato box and using it to lift Mark at height, the company was in control of the work but had failed to implement proper planning and safe execution of it.

“All companies have a legal duty to ensure the safety of workers they employ or who carry out work for them. If that had happened in this case, then Mark’s life wouldn’t have been lost.”

A joint investigation by Cheshire Constabulary and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that on the day of the accident there was no safe system of work implemented for working at height and unsuitable work equipment was used.

The potato box did not have the required safety features for a non-integrated work platform and had not been secured in a way to prevent it overbalancing.

Additionally, the forklift truck had not been subjected to a thorough examination at the required frequency and was unsuitable for lifting people and Denis Thornhill was not formally trained in operating the forklift truck. Enforcement action was taken and a Prohibition Notice was served on the company prohibiting further work until a safe system was devised.

Defending, Malcolm Galloway said numerous character references in support of Thornhill, who was well known in the community, had been submitted, and the case had taken a long time to resolve.

The court heard video evidence had been presented during the trial showing that, even without a ratchet strap, the potato crate was "more stable than first thought and would only become unstable if a person moved far to the side of the crate."

Sentencing judge The Honourable Mr Justice Stephen Morris added Thornhill had been involved in thousands of lifting boxes full of potatoes over the years, without ever having one tip.

Expert evidence given at trial had also said the practice of lifting people up "in this way happens regularly around the country without any incident at all, and that even where there is an incident, it is unlikely to result in a fatality or very serious injury".

The judge also detailed a number of "substantial steps" the company had voluntarily undertaken since February 2021 to improve health and safety, which included forklift truck testing, purchasing a safety harness to work on the grain bins, a locked ladder system and health and safety courses.

The judge extended his sympathy to Mr Young's family "for their terrible loss".