Managing director jailed over explosion death

On 3 February 2003, heating engineer Ben Pinkham, 21, suffered 90% burns when the flammable solvent he was using to clean a resin storage tank ignited and caused a massive blast. Mr Pinkham died 5 days later.

On Monday of this week an Exeter Crown Court jury unanimously found Alan Mark, 45, of Burleigh Manor, Plymouth, responsible for Mr Pinkham's death. Today Mr Justice Steel told Mark he inferred from the verdict that he had paid "no attention whatever to the obvious and serious risk of death involved in such a system of work".

Mark's company, Plymouth-based Nationwide Heating Systems Ltd, was also found guilty of manslaughter and had admitted separate health and safety offences, but the judge imposed no separate penalties.

Mr Pinkham had been working at a Plymouth boatyard owned by boat manufacturers Princess Yachts International when the blast occurred. Princess Yachts International, which had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two health and safety offences, was fined £90,000 with £10,000 prosecution costs.

Following sentencing today, Mr Pinkham's father Brian said: "We will grieve for Ben for all of our lifetime, and others who have lost their loved ones will know the devastation this causes.

"Justice was done here in this case, and we hope its impact will lead to saving other lives."

'Heedless risk'

The court had heard earlier how Ben Pinkham had not been warned about the dangers of using acetone in a confined space. It also heard how on the day of the incident he was suspended from a harness inside the tank and had knocked over a halogen light he was using. There was an explosion and smoke and flames came from the tank.

He was taken to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. His condition deteriorated and he died on the morning of February 8 from septic shock.

Mr Justice Steel told Mark today that the picture of "heedless risk" included persuading Princess Yachts that he was a suitable contractor to do the job, despite limited experience. His risk assessment did not mention acetone would be used to clean the tank, he added, and he had sent in two 21-year-old apprentices - Ben Pinkham and Jonathan Jarvis - to carry out the job.

Mark did not provide them with a copy of the risk assessment, and they were left to "cobble" the necessary equipment together, said the judge.

Warning to employers

"The life of a young man has been needlessly lost in a terrible way," said the judge. "This case must be viewed as a warning to all employers to pay rigorous and robust attention to matters of safety."

Mr Justice Steel also said Princess Yachts had left quantities of acetone in open buckets with no warnings on them.

Mark and his company had pleaded guilty to three pairs of joint health and safety offences - failing to make a suitable assessment of risks to the company's employees; failure to ensure the health and safety of Mr Pinkham and Mr Jarvis inside the tank; and failure to provide a system of work in a confined space which was safe and without risk to health.

Princess Yachts had admitted two health and safety offences - failure to conduct their undertaking to ensure Mr Pinkham and Mr Jarvis were not exposed to risk, and breach of the requirements of confined space regulations to ensure safe working.

Johnny Thomson