On Monday 16 May two scrap metal recycling companies and their directors were sentenced for health and safety offences in relation to an incident in July 2016 when a bay wall at a scrap metal recycling site collapsed resulting in the instant deaths of five men and the injury of two others who were working beneath it. 263 tonnes of steel briquettes had been stored against the 45 tonne wall. The defendants had argued that the wall collapse was not foreseeable. Following a seven week trial at Birmingham Crown Court in Autumn last year, Mr Justice Sweeting sentenced the companies to fines totalling £1.6m and both directors to 9 months’ immediate custody. Laura Phillips prosecuted, lead by Pascal Bates.