A Suffolk heating engineer has been found guilty of health and safety failings relating to the servicing of a customer’s boiler who later died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Peter Sykes, 68, a self employed servicing engineer from Castle Road, Hadleigh, is today awaiting the jury’s verdict on whether the failings also constitute the more serious charge of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Annette Coe, 72, the mother of William Coe who runs Coes stores in Suffolk and Essex, was found collapsed at her home in Ipswich on December 5, 2012 – just 47 days after Sykes last serviced her oil-fired heating system. She was pronounced dead from carbon monoxide poisoning the following day.
Yesterday, the jury at Norwich Crown Court convicted Sykes of health and safety charges relating to the boiler inspection carried out at Mrs Coe’s property in St Edmunds Road on October 19, 2012. He was also found guilty of health and safety failings relating to another customer’s heating system.
The jury, which spent yesterday and much of Monday deliberating, is expected to make its decision on the manslaughter charge today along with one remaining health and safety offence.
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