Pictured above: (l-r) Amy Sadro, David Lewis, Hazel Padmore, all from Weightmans Solicitors, and Chris Hutchins, a director at B&R, and Ashwin Mistry, Chairman of B&R

A Leicester company has appeared in court charged under the Corporate Manslaughter & Homicide Act after an employee was fatally injured.

The victim, a warehouse assistant, was hit by a delivery vehicle whilst trying to cross an access road behind his employer's food store. 

The company was accused of being responsible because pedestrians should not have been allowed in this area.

Fortunately, the company is fictitious and no one was fatally hurt because the court case was a mock trial staged by Leicester based Insurance Brokers Brett and Randall. It took place in Leicester's historic Guildhall to make directors of businesses more aware of the threat posed by the Act. 

The trial, enacted by lawyers from Weightmans Solicitors, attracted 50 senior business people and the audience became the jury after in depth questioning and the examination of several exhibits including company risk assessments and a detailed map of the premises. 

It was a very close call but the defendants were found not guilty, and B&R warns in a real-life case with a real-life jury, the outcome may have been very different. 

B&R staged the event following the first prosecution under the Act earlier this year when Cotswold Geotechnical were prosecuted and fined £385,000 following the death of an employee who was killed when a trench in which he was working collapsed. 

Chris Hutchins, a director at B&R, said: "We did not just want to organise another technical briefing and the mock trial was a great success. It was an interesting and entertaining way of getting over some important points to those attending and also explained how businesses may afford themselves some level of insurance protection. 

"The mock trail was highly relevant to anyone running a business who is grappling with trying to keep up to date with changing legislation and understanding their responsibilities in an increasingly litigious society where almost everyone appears to understand their rights to blame and claim."