A WASTE management firm has been fined a total of £3 million following the deaths of two workers in separate incidents – one of them at the Dartmoor National Park Conservation Works depot in Bovey Tracey.

Michael Atkin and Mark Wheatley died following incidents in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

The families of both men say they are devastated after losing their loved ones.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated both incidents and subsequently prosecuted Valencia Waste Management Limited, formerly known as Viridor Waste Management Limited.

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

The 31-year-old, who was from Sutton Coldfield but lived in Teignbridge, was an agency worker on his second week. Mark had been using a lorry to lift two skips at the same time, deploying a method called ‘hot swapping’.

However, the skips were not compatible, as they were of different dimensions, and fell at an angle onto the back of Mark’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, Mark’s parents, arrived at the scene of the incident following a phone call from their son asking for help.

Mark ‘made a positive impact on everyone he met’

Sue 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.’

Keeley Martin, Mark’s partner, said in her victim personal statement: ‘To say Mark was my soulmate really is an understatement, he really was the kindest most caring man anyone could have the pleasure of meeting, he made a positive impact on everyone he met.

‘The day he was taken he took a part of me with him, I nor anyone who knew him will ever be the same again.’

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.

Michael, from Wetherby, lost his life while collecting a load of wastepaper bales at Valencia Waste Management Limited’s Grendon Road site in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, on 10 October 2019.

Following the incident on 10 October 2019, Valencia Waste Management Limited, of London Road, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £1 million at Loughborough Magistrates’ Court on 6 September 2023.

Following the incident on 17 January 2020, 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 at Loughborough Magistrates’ Court on 6 September 2023.

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