Council ordered to pay £65k over death of vulnerable man at day centre

A council has this month been ordered to pay nearly £65,000 in fines and costs after the death of a vulnerable day visitor to one of its care centres.

Michael Breeze, 53, choked while eating his lunch on 5 September 2012 at Hartley’s Day Centre, in Shrewsbury. The centre is run by Shropshire Council.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Shrewsbury Crown Court that Hartley’s Day Opportunity Centre caters for adults with learning disabilities

Mr Breeze had been taken to the centre for the day with a packed lunch provided by carers at the residential home where he lived.

At around midday he began to eat his lunch when he started to choke and collapsed. Staff at the centre went to Mr Breeze’s assistance, who by then appeared to have gone into respiratory arrest.

CPR was commenced and paramedics were called. On arrival of paramedics attempt was made to intubate, this was difficult due to food in the trachea.

Mr Breeze, who lived at a care home in Sutton Bank, was rushed to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and further CPR was carried out with two lots of adrenaline being given. However, Mr Breeze did not recover.

The deceased had a history of choking incidents at both his residential home and day services and the HSE argued that appropriate safeguards were not implemented at Hartley’s Day centre despite these warnings.

Shropshire Council admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The council was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay £39,317 in costs.