Property Developer Fined £1 Million After Fatal Window Fall

A property developer has been fined £1 million after a father-of-two was killed by a window that fell 26 storeys from a luxury building in London. St James Group Ltd was also ordered to pay £125,000 in costs.

Mick Ferris, 53, died in October 2018 when a window from The Corniche building on Albert Embankment struck his coach, which was parked opposite. Jurors at Inner London Crown Court were told the outward-opening windows were held in place by a single metal restrictor that could be dislodged by the wind. A similar window panel had fallen from the same development a year earlier.

Specialist facade contractor Lindner Prater was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay £125,000 in costs for their role in the incident. Both companies were found guilty of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by ignoring "foreseeable risks". Luxury architecture firm Foster + Partners and engineering consultants Wintech Ltd were cleared of the same charge.

Mrs Ferris described her husband's death as "so sudden" and "out of the blue," adding that it "could have been prevented." She stated, "If somebody had done something differently – anything – it would have changed our lives. We wouldn't be in this position. What those companies did killed my husband."

She paid tribute to her husband, a coach driver who followed in his father's footsteps. "Mick was just minding his own business. One minute there, one minute gone," she said. "The thought this could have happened to anybody is always with me. It could have been a child."

Mr Justice Boyle, presiding over the sentencing, noted that while the design of outward-opening windows was common in the industry and not prohibited by Health and Safety Executive guidance, the restrictor, if present and connected, would have prevented detachment. He stated that St James Group should have been more "robust" in ensuring the safety component was present, and Lindner Prater should have done more to complete and document risk assessments.

James Goldfinch, principal inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said Mr Ferris was a "hardworking man just going about his day" who lost his life due to "the failings of two leading companies in their field." He added, "The fact lessons had not been learnt from a near miss the year before makes what happened on that day all the more galling."

The prosecution argued that designers had ignored concerns about the danger of outward-opening windows, with one prosecutor stating it was "an accident waiting to happen again." The decision to change the design to inward-opening windows was made only after Mr Ferris's death.

A spokesperson for St James Group said: "The death of Mick Ferris in 2018 was tragic. Our thoughts remain with his family and friends. We acknowledge today's verdict and will carefully consider its implications."

Lawyers for St James Group and Lindner Prater expressed remorse, calling the incident a "horrific tragedy and preventable incident." They suggested the fatal accident was almost certainly a consequence of a failure by a contractor hired for site work, and that it was not possible to pinpoint a failure of monitoring or inspection by the two defendants.