A Fife firm convicted after an employee was crushed to death by a lorry will have to wait to learn its fate for breaching health and safety legislation.
Workshop assistant Ian Bratchie, 50, died in the accident on September 3 2015, when he was run over by the HGV in the Lochgelly yard of Robert Purvis Plant Hire.
The company was found guilty of failing to make suitable and sufficient assessment of the risk of vehicles being driven away while they were under maintenance at its premises in Cartmore Industrial Estate between April 2 2012 and September 4 2015.
However, jurors at Dunfermline Sheriff Court delivered a not proven verdict to a second charge — that the firm had failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees.
The company was due to be sentenced on Friday but there was a disagreement over the appropriate level of sentencing, with Sheriff Christopher Shead saying he “can not turn a blind eye to the fact that there was a fatality” when advocate Susan Duff said the company’s level of culpability was “low”.
Sentencing was deferred until February 8 to allow time for “both sides of the bar” to agree on a position, the sheriff added.
