A paint stripper who died after inhaling poisonous fumes at work in Wolverhampton previously survived the toxic effects, a manslaughter trial jury was told.

Steve Cresswell, a colleague of tragic Dean Cox, told how the 21-year-old vomited and passed out after suffering a bad reaction as he worked with aluminium wheels in a tank of chemicals.

That was said to have been weeks before Mr Cox died when he was poisoned by dichloromethane, a key ingredient in the paint stripping process.

It is thought he had been standing on pallets and leaning over the so-called “acid tank” to check on aluminium wheels which were being stripped at A1, based in Horseley Fields.

He was overcome by the fumes and was found a short time later when Mr Cresswell went to check on him.

Mr Cresswell, of Dudley, told Warwick Crown Court yesterday how his childhood friend Mr Cox was involved in another incident in the weeks leading up to his death in September 2006. He said Mr Cox, of Great Bridge Road, Bilston, began dribbling as he worked with the wheels in the tank.

“We had to sit him down,” he said. “He was completely out of it. He was breathing but he wasn’t there. He was pale, lifeless.”

The firm shut the day after, but Mr Cox was said to have suffered reactions to the chemicals “on a daily basis”.

Mr Cresswell, who once had hospital treatment after splashing a chemical in his eye at A1, said he used to hold his breath when working over the tank.

“There were times when I felt a pumping in my head at the acid tank,” he added.

Prosecutors allege the firm’s boss John Beckett, aged 44, was “cavalier” with safety at the Minerva Lane industrial unit.

Beckett, of Kimberley Rise, West Bromwich, denies manslaughter by gross negligence. He has pleaded not guilty to two health and safety charges.

The trial continues.