An electricals firm was fined only £100 after one of its employees was set on fire and left in a coma following an explosion.
Workman Shahenur Rahman's body blew up to four times its normal size after the explosion at B&M's headquarters in Speke and suffered life-changing injuries. The retail giant was ordered to pay up £1m at Liverpool Crown Court this week over the incident after a "series of failings".
Also convicted of health and safety breaches in relation to the industrial accident was Daker Limited, the casualty's employer. But the company was handed a miniscule financial penalty in comparison.
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The court heard that B&M was advised by Leep Utilities in June 2018 that maintenance work was required on the high voltage switchgear at its HQ. This would have resulted in power to the building being cut, and as such the retailer hired two generators from supplier Aggreko in order to maintain the supply and "allow some core functions" to remain in operation.
Aggreko suggested Bolton-based Daker be contracted to connect these generators. Work was to take place on Saturday, September 22, 2018, in two areas of the site known as the "Vault" and the "Qube".
Upon arrival in the early morning, Daker employees - including Mr Rahman, who is also known as Sham - discovered that cables intended for the Vault had instead been delivered to the Qube by Aggreko. Craig Morris, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said that this "made what was already a tight timescale to work under even tighter".
Shortly before 8am, Mr Rahman was working alongside Daker director David Moran and self-employed electrician Alan Haddock by the main switch panel of the Vault. Mr Haddock, who was also working on-site that day, described a "pressurised atmosphere due to a shortage of time".
He told investigators: "David said to Sham 'there's the neutral, that's the one we want - watch the one on the left-hand side because it's live'. Seconds after that, there was an explosion.
"I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like a Catherine wheel - there was a red electrical flame spiraling in the air."
Mr Rahman's clothes were set alight, and his co-workers "rushed to his aid" and extinguished the flames. Believed to be aged in his 30s, he was rushed to Aintree Hospital and later transferred to Whiston Hospital.
The casualty suffered electrical burns to 15% of his body - including on his arms, hands, thighs, legs and face. Mr Rahman was placed in an induced coma for a fortnight and was unable to work for five months - having previously described himself as a "workaholic".
He underwent skin grafts from his leg in order to fix facial scars, while his body was swollen to four times its usual size. His left hand was a risk of being lost, but doctors were able to save it.
Mr Rahman also suffered complications including septicemia and pneumonia, and still requires two further operations as his fingers remain "curled up". It is believed that the trigger point was his spanner coming into close proximity with the live equipment.
Daker was only instructed to carry out the work days in advance. Mr Morris said of the company: "It is a core safety principle that work should not take place on or near to a live conductor unless it is unreasonable for it to be dead.
"In other words, don't undertake work next to a live supply if it can be reasonably avoided. There was no need for the Daker workers to be working on or in close proximity to a live conductor and a proper assessment in advance of the work by Daker would have identified this.
"As experienced electrical contractors, the first issue that should have come into focus should have been to identify whether they could connect the generators whilst the electricity supply was dead - and had that assessment been made, the answer would have been yes. Instead of this, Daker appear not to have considered this fundamental issue and to have accepted that live working was necessary and that the same should be undertaken in a relatively tight timescale.
"Whilst Daker's failings took place in the context of having been instructed much later in the planning stage than others and in an environment in which it was being asked to work to unrealistic timescales, those failings were nevertheless significant and it ultimately let Mr Rahman down badly."
The family-run "micro company" dates back to the 1950s but has since ceased trading, with only £200 remaining in its bank account and £50,000 owed in loans. Peter Smith, defending, described how it had been forced to fold after its insurance premiums ballooned from £900 to more than £12,000 per year following the explosion.
The business has not yet been formally wound up however. Daker's previous directors also included Mr Moran's wife Julie and their sons Liam and Daniel.
Mr Smith added: "Mr Moran and his family are genuinely sorry for the breach in this case, and especially the injuries sustained by Mr Rahman. Sham was not only a colleague of the Morans, but he is a close friend of Liam's.
"The pressurised situation was created by others, out of Daker's control. Even in the best run houses, accidents can take place and this particular house wasn't as well run as it should have been.
"What we're faced with here is a company which was clearly operating at a substantial loss. The situation was pretty dire."
B&M Retail Limited admitted two health and safety breaches, while Daker Limited pleaded guilty to one. Neither defendant has previous convictions for such matters.
The discounter was fined £1m and told to pay £4,978.30 in court costs plus a £170 victim surcharge. Daker would have faced a £12,000 fine, but this was reduced to a "nominal" amount of £100 due to its "dire financial straits".
Sentencing, Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said: "Quite clearly, these were horrific injuries with pertinent consequences. Mr Moran effectively instructed Mr Rahman to continue working in close proximity to live equipment."
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