Teenage apprentice dies at work - Director Jailed!

LESH
3 days ago
3 min read

An 18-year-old apprentice joiner was fatally crushed by unsecured wooden boards while working alone at a renovation project in Bangor, North Wales.

Chloe Bidwell was carrying out joinery work for Varcity Living Limited at a residential property on Deiniol Road on 20 December 2023 when a stack of large wooden boards toppled, causing fatal injuries.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Chloe had been working alone without a suitable lone working policy, adequate supervision, or safe storage arrangements for the board materials. The investigation concluded that the company and its director had failed to provide safe systems of work, as well as appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision.

The property management company has now been fined £50,000, while its director, David Horrocks, received a suspended prison sentence.

Chloe was working alone when the incident occurred. After she failed to respond to messages or return home, she was found dead at the property. Investigators believe she had been attempting to remove a plywood sheet from a vertically stacked pile of timber boards when several fell, crushing her neck.

The stack consisted of 28 large boards, each potentially weighing up to 30kg. The materials had been stored upright against a wall without any means of securing them, and the risk of the boards falling had not been identified.

HSE's investigation found multiple failings, including inadequate site supervision, the absence of a suitable lone working policy, no safe storage procedures for board materials, and an insufficient risk assessment before work began.

HSE guidance states that building materials should be stored securely to prevent them from toppling or rolling. Boards should be stacked horizontally on a level surface using suitable supports and should never be stored upright without adequate restraint. The regulator also advises that employers who require staff to work alone must provide additional training, supervision and monitoring, including procedures to ensure lone workers return safely after completing their tasks.

Varcity Living Limited, of High Street, Bangor, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. At Llandudno Magistrates' Court on 9 July 2026, the company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £10,080 in costs.

Director David Horrocks, of Felinheli, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37 of the same Act. He was sentenced to 26 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £7,886 in costs.

LESH H&S Consultants Analyse where the system broke down:

Material storage. HSE guidance is unambiguous: boards must be stored horizontally on a level surface using pallets or battens, and must never be stacked on edge without secure support. A quick site inspection or toolbox talk on safe stacking would likely have identified this hazard before it became fatal.

Lone working. Chloe was a young apprentice working entirely unsupervised. HSE guidance on lone working calls for increased training, closer monitoring, and — critically — a check-in procedure to confirm workers have returned safely once a task is complete. None of this existed. Young or inexperienced workers, in particular, should not be left to work alone on higher-risk tasks without a clear escalation and welfare-check process.

Risk assessment. No suitable risk assessment had been carried out for the site or the task. A basic, task-specific assessment covering material handling and storage would have flagged the unsecured stack as an obvious hazard.

Supervision, information, instruction and training. As a new apprentice, Chloe should have received structured induction and ongoing supervision appropriate to her experience. Employers have a heightened duty of care toward young workers, who are statistically more likely to be involved in workplace accidents due to inexperience and a reluctance to raise concerns.

What this means for employers

This case is a clear illustration of what "reasonably practicable" looks like in practice, and how far short Varcity Living fell. For any business managing property renovation or construction work, the practical takeaways are:

Carry out and document site- and task-specific risk assessments before work begins, and review them as conditions change.
Implement and enforce a written lone working policy, including regular check-ins and a defined response if contact is lost.
Ensure materials are stored and stacked in line with HSE guidance, with regular site checks to catch drift from safe practice.
Give young workers and apprentices enhanced induction, supervision, and a genuine, low-barrier way to ask questions or raise concerns.
Treat director-level engagement with safety as non-negotiable — Section 37 prosecutions show that personal liability follows organisational neglect.

Chloe's mother urged employers to "look beyond compliance" and treat safety as something genuinely meaningful in practice, not a box-ticking exercise. That's the standard every employer managing young or inexperienced staff on site should be holding themselves to.

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