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Contractor fined after collapsing wall kills ‘full of life’ employee
Cristina Lago Deputy Editor
Gary Anstey had recently become a grandad when he was killed. Image: HSE
A building company has been fined £56,775 after an employee was crushed to death when a 1.8m-high retaining wall collapsed on him.
Gary Anstey, 57, from Bristol, was working for H Mealing & Sons Ltd at a school construction site in Bath when the incident happened on 19 March 2019.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to properly plan and supervise the construction of the retaining wall at Swainswick School.
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When a large load of aggregate was placed against the incomplete and unsupported wall, it became unstable and collapsed.
Aggregate at the construction site where the wall collapsed. Image: HSE
Mealing & Sons Ltd of Northend, Batheaston, Bath pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £56,775 and ordered to pay £44,000 in costs at Taunton Magistrates’ Court on 11 September 2025.
In a victim’s personal statement, Anstey’s wife, Anne, said: “Gary was always full of life and he had recently become a grandad for the first time. [His] workplace should have been a safe place to work – he should have come home as he always did – and now he hasn’t been here to celebrate all the family milestones, and that is something that we as a family have to live with.”
HSE inspector Ian Whittles said: “This was a horrific incident which had heartbreaking consequences. It happened because of a lack of planning and coordination, which is all too common in construction activity. With simple, clear procedures and appropriate training this incident would not have happened.”
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