A company boss was fined £50,000 for breaches of health and safety laws which led to the death of an employee. Security officer David Bleak, 52, from Ramsgate in Kent, died from carbon monoxide poisoning while working at the former Ashford Hospital on 13 November 2001.

He was working near a petrol heater at the unventilated site. Philip Royle, chair of Royle Security, was fined at Maidstone Crown Court after pleading guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing. Mr Royle's company was ordered to pay a further £10,000 for the breaches. The heater had been used to provide security guards with light and hot water. Mr Bleak was found unconscious at the site and later died from inhaling carbon monoxide. Speaking outside court, HSE inspector Maria Strangward said: 'This was a tragic and preventable incident that claimed the life of a man and the HSE takes incidents such as this very seriously. Petrol heaters should not be placed in unventilated areas under any circumstances, as underlined by this prosecution.'