A NEWPORT firm was fined £250,000 yesterday after an employee's death was branded "a criminal waste of a young life" by a judge.

Park Environmental Services was fined for health and safety breaches which led to the death of 28-year-old chemist Dr John Lane on July 16, 2001.

Cardiff crown court heard that Dr Lane, from Tennyson Avenue, Llanwern, started work at 2pm and immediately noticed the fumes at the Corporation Road site that day.

At the tank where he was working there was a leak and he was overcome by fumes. Colleagues found him later. Two who pulled him out of the contaminated area later received bravery awards.

One, David Beardmore, 28, of Pentwyn Lane, Bettws said: "Me and another worker put on gas masks and went to try and find Jonath-an. We dragged him outside and tried to revive him. I was really scared the mask might not work."

Dr Lane was found to be dead on arrival at Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital. Deadly hydrogen sulphide gas had paralysed Dr Lane's respiratory system. It was later discovered that the tank lid was corroded.

Recorder John Griffith Williams, QC, told the court that the company, which pleaded guilty to three breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, had accepted criminal liability for the failures in its working practices which contributed to Dr Lane's death. The judge said the firm also accepted that its systems of work, not only on July 16 but before that date, were unsafe.

"It is all the more serious because the breaches resulted in a criminal waste of a young life, so full of pro-mise."

He said that it was the corrosion of the tank lids and the extraction system being rendered useless which were responsible for the escape of the deadly gas and the death of Dr Lane.

Mr Griffith Williams told the court that corrosion in the main tank lids had been noted at a safety meeting in 2000 - but nothing had been done to change the lids, despite the company having the funds at the time to finance necessary repairs.

The judge said that the company showed profits of £287,000 in 1999, £502,000 in 2000 and £183,000 in 2001.

The two directors at the firm at the time - all management has since been changed at the company - drew salaries together worth £218,000 in 2001.

Mr Griffith Williams said that there were deficiencies in the instruction and training of employees and no evidence that Dr Lane received any specific training. He said: "The public has the right to expect that serious criminal breaches of the health and safety legislation are met with appropriate punishment."

After the case, Phil Scott, principal inspector of the hazardous installations division of the Health and Safety Executive, said: "The death was caused by appall-ingly bad management of safety by the company. Had they paid due respect to safety then Dr Lane's life would not have been lost.

"It was described as a very bad case of its kind and the judge fined the company the maximum that he could."

PICTURED: Dr Lane's mother Ann (centre) speaking after the case.