Company directors jailed for deaths of five workers at Birmingham recycling plant
Five men were crushed to death when a wall collapsed at the plant in Nechells in 2016.
Two directors of a metal recycling firm in Birmingham have been sentenced to nine months in prison following the deaths of five men when a 45-tonne wall collapsed on them.
It happened at the Hawkeswood Metal Recycling in Nechells in July 2016.
As well as the prison sentences Hawkeswood Metal Recycling were fined £1m and Shrednet were fined £600,000.
The men - from an agency firm - were working at the site, when a wall overloaded with 263 tonnes of recycling blocks fell on top of them.
Almamo Jammeh, 45, Ousmane Diaby, 39, Bangally Dukuray, 55, Saibo Sillah, 42, and Mahamadou Jagana, 49, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Health and safety investigators described it as one of the worst cases they had dealt with.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted firms Ensco 10101 and Hawkeswood Metal Recycling, as well as directors Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse for safety failings linked to the deaths.
A jury convicted them of all 12 counts under the Health and Safety at Work Act in November 2022, after a trial which lasted six weeks at Birmingham Crown Court.
Today (15 May) they have been sentenced to nine months in prison.