A company which was responsible for the maintenance of a West Midlands shopping centre has been fined £1.3 million for breaching health and safety laws.
Cushman & Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung, which was the managing agent responsible for maintaining the Mander Shopping Centre, in Wolverhampton, admitted breaches of health and safety rules following the death of Tahnie Martin on February 23, 2017.
The 29-year-old, of Stafford, was killed by a wooden panel which was blown off the building roof during Storm Doris.
An inquest into Ms Martin's death has found that a plant room on top of the roof - from which the panel was ripped away - may not have been maintained for nearly two decades.
During a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court this week, Mrs Justice Carr said the company 'failed to identify' two brick structures on the plant roof altogether.
She said: ""By February 23, the parts intended to secure structures to the brick were entirely rotten and corroded.
"Unable to withstand winds of up to 59mph, they were simply blown away."
She added: "A significant number of members of public were put at significant risk of death or grave injury."
Sentencing, Mrs Justice Carr made reference to the 'serious failing' of the company in not properly inspecting the roof, naming the then operations manager Phil Dutton, his supervisor, Andrew King, and others at the company in failing to identify structures on the plant room roof.
She said: "It is extremely difficult to see how Mr Dutton, Mr King and others could not have noticed existing structures on the plant room at any time between September 2012 and February 2017.
"If the structures were genuinely not seen and identified or noticed in reports, it would suggest no or only a most cursory safety assessment on top of a roof of a large building in a busy shopping centre."
