Chloe Bidwell was working for Varcity Living Limited as a joinery apprentice at a property on 20 December 2023. It was undergoing a full renovation when a stack of wooden board material fell, fatally injuring  Bidwell.

She had been working alone at the time of the incident and was found deceased at the property after she failed to respond to messages or return home.

A mixture of board materials had been stacked vertically and unsecured against a wall. It is believed she may have been attempting to retrieve a plywood board from the stack when some of the boards fell on her, crushing her neck and causing fatal injuries.

There were 28 boards in total, of large dimensions and potentially weighing up to 30kg each. No attempt had been made to secure the boards in their upright position and the risk of them falling had not been identified.

An HSE investigation found that Varcity Living Limited failed to provide safe systems of work and failed to provide adequate information, instruction, training and supervision, so far as was reasonably practicable. The investigation also found that these failures were attributable to the neglect of director David Horrocks.

Investigators found there was inadequate site supervision, no suitable lone working policy or procedure, no suitable policy or procedure for the storage of board materials, and inadequate risk assessment prior to the incident.

Varcity Living Limited, of Bangor, pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £10,080 in costs at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

David Horrocks, of Felinheli also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 26 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to pay £7,886 in costs.

Chloe’s mother, Clare Stephenson-Brown, said: “As a family, we hope this case is not viewed simply in terms of the outcome in court, but as a stark reminder of the real human cost behind it.

`’The impact of losing Chloe reaches far beyond any sentence and will stay with us forever. We urge employers to look beyond compliance and truly consider the responsibility they hold for the lives in their care. Safety must be meaningful in practice, ensuring risks are properly managed, lone working is safe, and that everyone who goes to work returns home.”

HSE inspector Rachael Newman said: “Chloe Bidwell was a young apprentice joiner at the very beginning of her career. She had every right to expect that her employer would take the basic steps needed to keep her safe at work. Her family had every right to expect that when Chloe went to work, she would come home.

“The tragedy of Chloe’s death is made all the more jarring because it was so wholly avoidable. Apprentices should not be working alone on a construction site, and Chloe died in circumstances which should never have been able to happen.”