A mum has spoken of a five-year battle to get justice for her son who was killed when his head was crushed by a grab machine on a Bradford building site.

Skipton-based construction company, JN Bentley Ltd, was yesterday fined more than £100,000 for causing the death of a 23-year-old Keighley man, Steven Allen, in a “tragedy of enormous proportions.”

Mr Allen died after a grab machine closed on his head while working for the company at a site in Midland Road, Manningham, on March 9, 2007.

Since then, his mother Judith and his family have been fighting for company bosses to admit guilt for causing Mr Allen’s death.

They finally received justice yesterday when a judge at Bradford Crown Court fined JN Bentley £106,250 for its “significant” health and safety failings.

The company was also ordered to pay £90,000 prosecution costs following a three-day trial of issue after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety law but refusing to acknowledge that its failings led to Mr Allen’s death.

Mrs Allen, 46, said: “I am pleased with the outcome but it is sad that it took so long.

“It has always been hanging over everything we’ve done since it happened.

“The effects of Steven’s death continue to affect us all severely. Whatever fines are imposed it does not alter the fact that I have had my son taken from me, before he had chance to grow into the fine young man I know he would have become. This may be the end as far as prosecutions go, but our lives are blighted forever.”

Mr Allen was working on the construction on Bradford Council recycling centre on the day he died.

The site manager had ordered a scissor grab from plant hire company Marwood Group Limited, which had been delivered at the beginning of the week.

Mr Allen was among a group of workers attempting to lift a palette containing bags of cement – their last job before leaving work for the weekend.

Some of the bags fell off and the palette remained trapped and Mr Allen, who was standing under the grabber, reached up to try to free the palette.

He freed it but the jaws of the grab closed on his head, causing horrific injuries.

He was taken to hospital but his life support machine was turned off the next day.

During the trial of issue, Tim Horlock QC, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said the grab was “unsuitable” for moving the load of cement bags on a palette, a fact JN Bentley ought to have known.

Various risk assessments had been carried out at the site – even for the removal of Japanese knotweed – but not for lifting or moving supplies on palettes and no “method statement” had been prepared to show how the work should be carried out, the court heard.

JN Bentley admitted failing to ensure the health and safety of their employee.

However, Mr Horlock also said that, had a safe system of work been implemented, the accident would not have happened, an argument accepted by Recorder Julian Smith.

In his judgement, he said: “If appropriate equipment had been used, Mr Allen would not have been killed in the way he was.”

Mark Turner, QC, mitigating for the company, said it had won regional, national and international awards for its health and safety. Last year, there were no reportable accidents at its sites in over 2,000 working hours, he said.

Sentencing JN Bentley, Recorder Smith said Mr Allen’s death had not been caused by “systemic problems” but had been a “complete aberration”.

However, he said: “At the foundation of this case is a tragedy of enormous proportions. I have read the victim impact statement, the terms of which were and are, profoundly moving.

“What it demonstrated about his family is what it demonstrates about him. It is apparent that great potential existed in that man.”

Mr Allen, of Highfield Road, was a former pupil of Our Lady of Victories and Holy Family Catholic Schools in Keighley.

He had been involved with taking disabled people to Lourdes and loved playing football for The Royal and Cavendish pub teams.

His mum said: “He was a loveable chap. He was very popular and had lots of friends.

“We were all very close, him and his brothers and sisters who all really miss him.”