A Warwickshire waste management firm has been fined a total of £3 million following the deaths of two workers in separate incidents.

Michael Atkin died after being crushed by some wastepaper bales in 2019, while Mark Wheatley died after being hit by a skip in 2020.

Both men were working on sites owned by Valencia Waste Management Limited, formerly known as Viridor Waste Management Limited.

The Stretton-on-Dunsmore firm pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches at Loughborough Magistrates Court on Wednesday (September 6) following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

HSE said both deaths were "avoidable" but had left "devastating" grief for both families.

'Left an Enormous Hole'

Mr Atkin, from Wetherby, lost his life while collecting a load of wastepaper bales at the firm's Grendon Road site in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, on 10 October 2019.

The 63-year-old, a HGV driver employed by RT Keedwell, had been working at the site with a Valencia employee, who was using a forklift truck to load Mr Atkin's lorry with rows of bales.

With three rows of bales already loaded onto the lorry, the Valencia employee then attempted to load a fourth row.

However, while loading the fourth, some bales in the third row were dislodged and fell off the lorry, fatally crushing Mr Atkin.

The HGV driver had been securing the other bales onto the lorry before he was crushed.

Each bale weighed at least 820kg.

Janet Atkin, Mr Atkin's partner, said: "Since the loss of Michael, it has left an enormous hole in my life, four years later I'm still traumatised and I don't sleep well."

A HSE investigation found it was not custom and practice at Valencia Waste Management Limited's Earls Barton site for bales to be loaded onto lorries by fork lift truck operators at the same time the lorry driver was strapping bales which had previously been loaded onto the lorry flatbed.

Systems were in place for drivers to remain within their cabs, or in some other safe location away from the loading activity, but this was not adhered to at the time of the incident.

Following the incident, Valencia Waste Management Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company was fined £1 million on Wednesday.

Insufficient Assessments

Mr Wheatley died following an incident on 17 January 2020 at the Dartmoor National Park Conservation Works depot in Bovey Tracey, Devon.

The 31-year-old, who was from Sutton Coldfield but lived in Teignbridge, Devon, was an agency worker on his second week.

He had been using a lorry to lift two skips at the same time, known as 'hot swapping'.

However, the skips were not compatible, as they were of different dimensions, and fell at an angle onto the back of Mr Wheatley's lorry.

He then got onto the lorry bed to rectify the situation but the skips overbalanced and fatally struck him.

John and Sue Wheatley, his parents, arrived at the scene of the incident following a phone call from their son asking for help.

Mark Wheatley (image via HSE)

Ms Wheatley said in a statement presented to the court: "Every single night as soon as I close my eyes, I see Mark lying crushed underneath the skip dead or dying.

"When we arrived at the scene we were held back by the police and so I couldn't get close to him and couldn't tell if he was dead or alive.

"That image is what I see every single night when I close my eyes and every single morning before I open my eyes. I shouted out to him that we were there. I will never know if he heard that or not."

A HSE investigation into this incident found Valencia Waste Management Limited had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment into skip operations meaning that safe systems of work and appropriate training were not implemented, and skips were not maintained in an efficient state.

Furthermore, sizes were not displayed on the skips themselves.

Valencia Waste Management Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The company was fined £2 million.

The company was also ordered to pay combined costs of £21,054.