A STONEMASONRY firm found guilty of corporate manslaughter after one of its employees was crushed to death has been ordered to pay more than £237,000.

Bristol and Bath-based Cavendish Masonry was convicted by a jury in May this year of a gross breach of the duty of care it owed 23-year-old David Evans.

The stonemason's mate was working on a building site in Moulsford, near Wallingford, when he was killed by a falling two-tonne block of limestone on February 9, 2010.

It was to form part of a wall at the Well Barn Estate, which is owned by former Pizza Express director Hugh Osmond and was undergoing a £2m renovation.

Today at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Patrick Eccles QC said responsibility for the failings had to rest with the small company's sole director, Richard Ferris.

Judge Eccles said the starting point for a fine for corporate manslaughter - the only penalty in such cases - was £500,000.

But defence barrister Patrick Gibbs QC argued if the fine was too large the company would go into liquidation and none of the money would be paid.

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Judge Eccles said that although it did not match the gravity of the offence it would be better to pass a smaller fine that the company had some hope of paying.

He fined Cavendish Masonry £150,000, to be paid over five years, and said it must also pay £87,117.69 in costs.

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