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Bilston business owner guilty of Jagpal Singh manslaughter by gross negligence

Credit: PA

A Bilston skip company has been fined £600,000 after being found guilty of gross negligence and manslaughter following the death of an employee. Owner, Bikram Mahli was also found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence at Wolverhampton Crown Court today where he received a 2 year suspended prison sentence.

The court heard that Jagpal Singh died of head injuries in 2012 after falling from a skip where the 24-year-old was compressing waste. Judge James Burbage QC told the court:

"It was difficult to see whether human life was valued at all on the site “Bikram Singh Mahli allowed a woeful and inadequate system of work where there were significant failures to segregate workers from plant machinery, as a consequence, this lead directly to the death of Jagpal Singh."

– Judge James Burbage QC

Mahli was directed to personally pay costs of £10,000 and was banned from being a director of a company for ten years. Police said the case should 'send a message to employers who pay scant regard to the health and safety of their workers.'