A company boss was today cleared of killing a Bilston worker who died after inhaling poisonous fumes – but was fined £17,500 for a health and safety breaches.

John Beckett, aged 44, was accused over the death of “right hand man” Dean Cox, 21, – found slumped over a vat of chemicals  used to strip alloy wheels at A1 in Wolverhampton.

Today, Judge Richard Griffith Jones entered a not guilty verdict on the charge of manslaughter by gross negligence after Beckett’s lawyers argued there was no case to answer.

Beckett, of Kimberley Rise, West Bromwich, admitted a health and safety charge over standards at A1, Minerva Lane, Horseley Fields. The family of Mr Cox, of Great Bridge Road, were at Warwick Crown Court for today’s guilty plea. Prosecutors alleged a “cavalier” attitude was taken to safety.

Beckett, said to be “profoundly distressed” during questioning, said he never felt ill because of fumes at work, nor had anyone reported any problems.

He said: “Nobody’s ever come to me and said ‘I don’t feel very well and I don’t like how we’re working. If they had done, I would have done something about it.” 

He said staff were supposed to use a hook to pluck wheels from the tank and he told them never to lean over and use their hands.