MD of metalworks firm convicted of manslaughter over death of worker. Image: Met Police

Metalworks firm Managing director Mohammad Babamiri, 59, has been given a suspended prison sentence for the manslaughter of one of his employees.

The judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court suspended the 18-month sentence for two years.

37-year-old Shenol Shevka-Ahmed was crushed to death by heavy machinery at a unit on The Hastingwood Trading Estate in January 2013.

Shenol Shevka-Ahmed who was crushed to death in accident at work. Image: Met Police

Another man received a suspended sentence for Health and Safety offences and Babamiri’s firm RK Metalworks was fined £150,000.

Investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:

This is a tragic case, the victim had only worked at the company for a matter of weeks and was overjoyed at having secured a job.

If the management that employed him had followed simple guidelines and used some common sense, then this incident would never have arisen. The accident itself was totally avoidable and has cost a man his life.

The victim from Gloucester Road, Edmonton had a wife and two young boys back in Bulgaria.

He was trapped under a large metal cutting machine and died later in hospital.

Health and Safety Executive. Image: http://www.hse.gov.uk/

HSE inspector Kevin Smith said:

The circumstances surrounding Shenol’s tragic death are barely comprehensible. How anyone could have considered moving the guillotine with such inadequate equipment and an apparent absence of any planning as a safe and acceptable practice frankly beggars belief.

Doing so was fraught with risk and it was entirely foreseeable that should the heavy machinery topple or slip it could have devastating consequences – as proved the case.

The three parties sentenced today, chiefly Mohammed Babamiri, are culpable for the health and safety failings and I hope their convictions serve as a clear reminder to others that lifting operations of this nature must be properly planned, managed and executed by competent, trained personnel.