The Co-op will have to pay almost half a million pounds after a man died following a fall in its Truro store.

In July 2015, Stanley May, aged 74, had slipped in water which had accumulated on the floor of the Co-op store in Boscawen Street following a leak from a faulty appliance. He hit his head on the floor and died later in hospital from a subdural haematoma.

Investigators found that water had been intermittently leaking from under a sandwich chiller over a period of almost 44 hours and although mopping had occurred there had been no effective method employed to stop or contain the leak or prevent customers accessing the area.

Engineers had been called to repair the chiller on the day prior to the accident and it appeared to have been repaired effectively, however, it had continued to leak and on the day in question the chiller had not been reported as a maintenance issue and the only control method was a wet floor sign.

At a sentencing hearing today (22/5) at Truro Crown Court, the Co-Operative Group Ltd was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £50,000.

Following an investigation by Cornwall Council’s public protection officers, the company had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Following the hearing, investigating officer Sarah-Jane Brown from Cornwall Council’s business regulatory support team said: "This case demonstrates the importance of slip risks being adequately controlled. It should serve a warning to the retail industry, and particularly supermarkets, that signage alone is not an adequate control. Proactive measures must be taken to either prevent floors becoming slippery or precluding public access."