A Kent firm has been fined nearly £175,000 after pleading guilty to breaching safety laws when a worker was crushed to death in 2006.
North Kent Shotblasting was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court and asked to pay the fine after admitting breaches to Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Builders liability insurance customers were also warned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) not to expose their employees to unacceptable risks at work.
The charges relate to an October 2006 incident when Nigel Harrison was crushed to death by a 975kg metal plate that he was working on.
David Fussell, HSE inspector, said that the fatal injuries to Mr Harrison were easily preventable and the incident came about because of a reliance on a fatally-flawed system of work.
He added: "Crush and trap injuries are a common cause of building incidents. If the firm in this case had carried out an assessment of the risks and implemented simple and cheap safety measures then this incident could have been avoided."
Builders liability insurance customers were recently given a reminder of the need for health and safety measures after a company was fined over £100,000 following an incident in 2007.
OCS Group of Surrey was prosecuted after employee Joseph Pathmananthan, 61, suffered multiple broken bones and internal injuries after being crushed by a machine at a site in Wandsworth.