Mark Balysz KC, Mike Atkins, and Meredith Daniel secure non-custodial sentences for directors in trampoline park case involving hundreds of injuries
Mark Balysz KC and Mike Atkins, leading Meredith Daniel, represented two former company directors prosecuted in connection with the operation of a trampoline park in Chester.
The Prosecution case was that more than 270 members of the public were injured in the first 8 weeks of operation after jumping from an attraction known as the tower jump into a foam pit. 11 suffered spinal fractures. There were wide-ranging allegations of inadequacies in relation to risk assessment, training, supervision, and systems for monitoring and responding to incidents.
The case was originally presented on the footing that it involved Very High culpability and a High likelihood of Level A harm (a starting point of 18-months’ custody), aggravated by cost-cutting at the expense of safety.
Mark, Mike, and Meredith secured a basis of plea whereby the directors were sentenced on the basis of Medium culpability and a Low likelihood of Level A harm, without the aggravating feature of profit before safety. The Judge was persuaded to impose non-custodial sentences in the form of community orders and modest financial penalties.
Mark, Mike, and Meredith were instructed by Natalie Puce of Clyde & Co.
