A Liverpool company has been ordered to pay just £3 over an explosion in which one of its employees was killed and another three were seriously injured.

Sitting in the city’s Crown Court on 8 June, Judge Graham Morrow said he would have levied a fine in the region of £250,000 had Aintree-based North West Aerosols Ltd not gone into voluntary liquidation after the December 2005 incident.

The court heard that at 7.45am, as production was starting for the day, there was a release of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), which ignited and caused a fireball that engulfed the factory and half the adjacent road. Aerosol containers were exploding and scattering all over the premises and the road. Worker Christopher Knoop died from his injuries, and colleagues Gary Brine, Kevin Armstrong and Graham Ryder all sustained serious burns.

HSE inspector Keith Morris told SHP: “The company had changed over from LPG to a non-hazardous gas some weeks before the incident. However, contrary to good practice, the LPG pipes were left open-ended, without proper mechanical or automatic valves to prevent a release.

“On the morning of the incident a trainee was listed to get things started but he was unable to do so. He did the right thing and called the usual fitter and the maintenance manager, who then tried to start it. People were probably pressing switches and turning valves to try to get it going.

“Opening a single manual valve would lead to a release of LPG into the gashouse. It was reasonably foreseeable that, sooner or later, someone would inadvertently open the wrong valve, causing a release of LPG.”

North West Aerosols Ltd was not represented in court and a not-guilty plea was entered on its behalf. It was, however, found guilty of a breach of s2(1) of the HSWA 1974 for failing to ensure the safety of its employees. It was fined £2 plus £1 in costs, because of its liquidation status.

Asked why the HSE had taken the case when there was no prospect of a large fine, or of recouping its costs, inspector Morris explained: “We pursued the company so we could make enquiries into its solvency, and our message to other companies is that just because you go into liquidation doesn’t mean we won’t still pursue you.”

Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), which supported relatives of the victims, said the case highlights the urgent need for positive duties in law on directors. A spokesperson said that if such duties existed, “then the individual directors of this company could have been held to account in court. It is currently lawful for a company charged with breaking health and safety law, where this results in death and severe injury, to be put into liquidation and for the individual directors to walk away, escaping any charges at all.”

The pressure group’s view was echoed by IOSH, with president Ray Hurst saying: “We believe there is a need for explicit and enforceable directors’ duties, failure to comply with which would be an indictable offence. This could potentially lead to the disqualification of convicted directors, which we feel would be a more suitable punishment for offences like this.”

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