North-East recycling company found guilty of corporate manslaughter over tragic death of worker at £7m Hartlepool site

Agency worker Dean Atkinson, 35, died after he was hit by an 18-tonne shovel loader in a tragic accident at Ward Recycling, in Windermere Road, in January 2020.

A trial at Teesside Crown Court heard that health and safety measures at the site, which operated around the clock, were “woefully inadequate” and virtually non-existent.

They included a lack of training and no traffic management plan in place to segregate pedestrians and heavy vehicles, including in the shed where waste was dumped and sorted.

A “chaotic and dysfunctional” senior management structure within the company also contributed to a dangerous working environment that put all workers at risk, the court heard.

Prosecutor Allan Compton said: “This was tragically an accident that was simply waiting to happen.”

A jury found Ward Recycling guilty of corporate manslaughter and charges of failing to discharge a general duty of care to employees and also non employees.

No blame at all was attached to the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident.

The company, which owned a number of premises in the region, was not represented at the trial having entered liquidation in February 2021.

The prosecution said there were “multiple and inexcusable” failures to protect employees.

The trial heard workers, including Mr Atkinson, regularly crossed the picking floor, where large vehicles with limited visibility operated, to reach the toilets and rest facilities.

Mr Compton said: “The most basic measures were simply not in place at the Hartlepool site.”

There was an over reliance on common sense and just the use of high-vis jackets.

There was some partial fencing but it did not extend all around the tipping floor, and there was “no proper road way” on the site.

Ward Recycling managing director admitted to police that health and safety was not a top priority but something they were “getting round to”.

Measures were only put in place after Mr Atkinson’s death.

Mr Compton added: “The reality is what happened should not have been allowed to happen at all.”

Sentence was adjourned until January 19 to allow inquiries into the liquidation stage and and availability of assets.