Golf ball collector drowned in lake

A GOLF company director who “put profit before safety” has been jailed for 32 months after his employee drowned while searching for balls in a lake.

Gareth Pugh, 29, whose body was found weighed down by a bag containing 341 balls, entered the water at Peterstone Lakes Golf Club, just outside Cardiff, but he had unsuitable equipment and no diving experience.

It is not clear what happened to Mr Pugh, a father of one who had learning difficulties, but he became detached from his face mask at the bottom of the 8ft-deep lake. Dale Pike, 25, of Glynneath, near Swansea, was supposedly supervising Mr Pugh but he had ignored health and safety guidelines, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Davis Elias QC, defending, said Pike, of Glynneath, near Swansea, who earlier admitted manslaughter by gross negligence, “expressed sincere and genuine remorse”. Judge Keith Thomas told him: “You ignored both the risks and advice because it would eat into your profits. Your cavalier attitude to safety caused Mr Pugh’s death.”