Prosecution by council sees leisure firm fined £330,000 over swimming incident

Fitness firm David Lloyd Leisure has been ordered to pay more than £350,000 after a prosecution brought by Hounslow Council and conducted by shared legal service HB Public Law.

The leisure company had previously pleaded guilty to an incident in the swimming pool at its Heston club in February 2013, when a five-year-old boy was almost fatally injured.

The boy suffered drowning and asphyxiation at a ‘kids holiday active’ session. Staff wrongly allowed him to take part in the Holiday Active swimming session in circumstances where he did not have armbands and they were aware or should have been aware that he could not swim.

The boy was treated at the poolside by ambulance crew and later made a full recovery.

David Lloyd Leisure pleaded guilty to the charge under s.3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to have taken all reasonably practicable measures for the safety of the boy.

It is the biggest fine that has been given in any investigation brought by Hounslow Council.

The proceedings were commenced in the (recently closed) Feltham Magistrates Court and were transferred to the Isleworth Crown Court for sentencing.

His Honour Judge Denniss applied the Sentencing Guidelines Council’s definitive guidelines for ‘Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences’, which apply to all organisations and offenders who are sentenced on or after 1 February 2016, regardless of the date of the offence.

The judge sentenced the company to a fine of £330,000, finding that the offence fell into Medium Culpability, Harm Level A and Medium Likelihood of Harm (therefore becoming Harm Category 2) and that the defendant was a large company. David Lloyd was also ordered to pay Hounslow’s full costs amounting to £22,131.

HB Public Law instructed David McNeill of 5 St Andrew’s Hill Chambers at the sentencing hearing.

Cllr Sue Sampson, Cabinet Member for Community Protection, Hounslow Council, said: “This serious incident could have resulted in a fatality. Thankfully the child involved has suffered no lasting consequences.

“The council’s thorough investigation has shown that the activity was meant to be run in a structured way, but instead the children were allowed into the pool for ‘free play’ sessions.

“The situation could have been avoided if the club had ensured that staff given the role of running and supervising the swimming activity, and parents enrolling their children to take part, were made aware that children should either be competent swimmers or needed to wear armbands at all times.

“Lessons have been learned by all involved and David Lloyd’s guilty plea has shown how seriously they have treated the incident.”

A statement issued by David Lloyd Leisure said: “The safety and security of our members is our number one priority, and we would like to express our deepest and most sincere apologies to Blakeney and his family for the distress caused.

“Families lie at the heart of David Lloyd Clubs and we strive to offer industry-leading standards of childcare and family activities. We have accepted full responsibility for this incident which happened nearly four years’ ago when the company was under a different ownership. It was an unacceptable breach of our child safety policies and we want to reassure everyone that we have taken stringent measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”