A WASTE company and its two bosses - who held “reckless disregard” for the safety of their employees - were fined more than £90,000 yesterday following the horrific deaths of three workers in a slurry tank.

A WASTE company and its two bosses - who held “reckless disregard” for the safety of their employees - were fined more than £90,000 yesterday following the horrific deaths of three workers in a slurry tank.

Enviro-Waste Ltd, from Thetford, its director, and general manager, made a catalogue of health and safety failings that led to the tragedy at a Norfolk farm almost three years ago, Norwich Crown Court heard.

A judge yesterday said the deaths of the three men was an “accident waiting to happen” after the waste company, manager Gordon Betts and director Roger Clark admitted breaching workplace health and safety legislation.

Employees Timothy Bartram, 46, George Barnes, 28, and Graham Morris, 54, were overcome by noxious fumes and drowned in three feet of slurry in a field, off the A1075, at Great Hockham, near Thetford, in July 2004.

Christopher Kerr, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said field manager Mr Bartram, from Thetford, was cleaning the tank when he intentionally or accidentally entered the area, which had “dangerously” high carbon dioxide and low oxygen levels. Mr Barnes, a lorry driver from Brandon, and Mr Morris, an injection operator from Thetford, attempted to rescue their friend and colleague but “met the same fate”.

The court heard that Enviro-Waste had failed to provide a safe working environment for its workers and had no risk assessments in place, no slurry tank cleaning procedures, no rescue guidelines, and had a “lax” and “wholly inadequate” staff training regime. The waste container in question was also missing several safety features which would have prevented entry by the three men, said Mr Kerr.

Enviro-Waste, of Brunel Way, was yesterday fined £72,500 and ordered to pay £50,000 costs after it admitted failing to manage the risks of slurry holding tanks - a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Betts, 64, of Fulmerston Road, Thetford, and Clark, 63, from High Easter, near Chelmsford, were each ordered to pay £10,000 fines.

Defence barristers for the two company bosses said the two men, who were retired or about to retire, were deeply sorry, had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, and had immediately taken steps to ensure that none of Enviro-Waste's 40 staff suffered a similar fate in the future.

Judge Peter Jacobs said no sentence could deal with the “grief and loss” of relatives and friends of the men.

“There was a reckless disregard to the health and safety of these employees working with potentially lethal and toxic substances. It was not a one-off and continued for some time. It was an accident waiting to happen,” he said.

But after the hearing, the family of one of the victims spoke of their anger at the penalty for the two company bosses.

Barbara Aylward, sister of Graham Morris, said: “We are devastated at the outcome. It is two-and-a-half years since my brother died and we hold the company responsible for his death. It is incompetent to have no training, safety, or first aid equipment on site.”

Mr Morris' widow, Susan, described the sentences as “disgraceful”.