27 Sep 2011
Perth-based company Epsco has been fined £35,000 following the death of a man who drowned after falling into a sump filled with water at a north Wales power station.
The maintenance contractor was also ordered to pay £120,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety regulations at Mold Crown Court.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Epsco after it found that 37-year-old Michael Benn, from Glenrothes, Fife, had been working in poorly lit conditions inside a cooling tower at Connah’s Quay Power Station on August 27, 2007.
It emerged that Mr Benn, who was one of a team of three working to remove sludge and debris from part of the cooling tower, had entered an enclosed culvert to check the depth of water in the sump.
Mr Benn’s fellow workers tried to help him after they heard distressed shouts from the sump, but by the time they arrived on the scene he had disappeared from view. His body was later found at the bottom of the sump.
Copyright Press Association 2011