THE managing director of a joinery firm in Mansfield has been fined £7,500 after a 17-year-old apprentice died when wooden boards fell on him.

Christopher Pridmore plead- ed guilty at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday to failing to provide suitable work equipment at Chris Pridmore Joinery between October 30 and November 6, 2006.

Ian Bridge, representing the Health and Safety Executive, said Simon Murphy, an apprentice joiner, died when nine boards measuring 8ft by 4ft and weighing a quarter of a ton fell on him.

Pridmore, 32, had a bracket made a week earlier to hold the boards but Mr Bridge said this had been 'drawn up on the back of a cigarette packet'.

A rough sketch on the back of an A4 pad on how the bracket should be designed had been given to a welder by Pridmore, who approved it.

Simon Murphy was pulling one of the boards out when they fell on him. Pridmore had tried to revive him at the scene.

Pridmore pleaded guilty to a separate offence of assault causing actual bodily harm on an off-duty police officer in Mansfield.

Judge John Burgess imposed a 26-week sentence, suspended for 12 months for the assault, 200 hours community service and £500 in compensation for the off-duty officer.

On the health and safety breach, he said as well as the £7,500 fine Pridmore would be liable to pay £2,500 costs.

Judge Burgess said: "Of course it was, as I accept, an irony of this case that you were attempting to actually make matters better by what you did.

"But it is apparent that what you did was in fact create a significant danger in the event that this restraining bar broke.

"The matter wasn't properly thought through. It was an accident in many ways waiting to happen."