Stonegrave Aggregates fined £200k over worker death

Stonegrave Aggregates and two bosses admitted failing to ensure the health and safety of employees

A waste firm has been fined £200,000 after one worker was killed and another seriously injured when a large rotating drum was switched on with them inside.

Simon Hogg, 47, died inside the drum, known as a trommel, at Stonegrave Aggregates in Aycliffe, County Durham, in December 2015.

Appearing at Durham Crown Court, the firm admitted failing to ensure the health and safety of employees.

Two company bosses also admitted breaching health and safety rules.

David Basham, 60, of Devonport Row, Darlington, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for a year, while Bruce David Whitley, 61, of Oakwood Drive, Darlington, was given a 12-month community order.

The firm was also ordered to pay £48,952.90 in prosecution costs.

An inquest in 2019 heard Mr Hogg, from Hurworth, suffered multiple injuries when the 6ft 6in (2m) diameter trommel began to turn as he and colleague Ray Garrett attempted to remove a blockage.

Mr Garrett was successfully released from the machine, but it was a further five minutes before staff discovered Mr Hogg among the waste paper.

The two men were near the end of a Saturday morning overtime shift and were working on an experimental project to shred paper for animal bedding.

The trommel was off when they went inside it but two colleagues, who did not know they were there, switched it back on.