Blaze hotel owner could face trial for ‘corporate killing’
THE owners of a luxury Scots hotel are facing the threat of criminal charges over the death of two men in a fire.
Simon Midgley, 32, and Richard Dyson, 38, died when a blaze ripped through Cameron House on the banks of Loch Lomond a week before Christmas last year.
Now, the Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal investigators probing the cause of the blaze believe there may be grounds to charge the hotel’s owners with corporate culpable homicide.
A report has been passed to the Crown Office to decide if it should bring charges.
The couple died when fire broke out in the early hours of December 18.
The devastation was so great and the subsequent winter so severe that investigators could not enter the hotel, near Balloch, Dunbartonshire, safely for 13 weeks.
More than 70 firefighters tackled the blaze and 200 guests were evacuated, including a baby wrapped in a blanket and carried out by a fire officer.
But the scale and success of the rescue left question marks over the failure to rescue Mr Midgley and Mr Dyson, who lived in London.
An informed source has told The Scottish Mail on Sunday that a Police Scotland report to the procurator fiscal looks at culpability and whether or not the deaths were avoidable.
The source said: ‘There appeared to be a fairly random procedure followed by staff in evacuating the premises.
‘This would suggest either that the procedure was not sufficiently well rehearsed, or that staff at the hotel deviated from it for some reason.
‘More than 200 people were rescued but tragically two were not, and investigators have had to assess if all that could have been done for them was done. They have asked the Crown if further investigation should be carried out that might lead to charges of corporate culpable homicide.’
Last night, Mr Midgley’s mother Jane, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, said: ‘We have not been told any of this.
‘The police said they’d be in contact when they knew more. It’s been quiet for a long time and we’ve been patient.
‘We were told we’d be the first to hear anything.’
In March, Mrs Midgley demanded to know why her son and his partner never made it out of the hotel, saying: ‘It’s very upsetting and distressing not having any answers.
‘My heart is absolutely broken. I have hundreds of questions I want answering.’
Corporate killing charges, which carry an unlimited fine, are rare in the UK. Most cases brought since the law was introduced in 1965 have been against big companies, including the gas pipeline firm Transco and Network Rail.
The weakness in the law is that the actions of an individual must be shown to be not only unlawful but proven to have a controlling influence within the firm and upon the events that led to death.
Most prosecutions have failed and been substituted with breaches of the Health and Safety Act, but with guilty verdicts for the lesser crime still resulting in massive fines.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: ‘The families will continue to be kept updated.’
Cameron House was bought from the De Vere group by QHotels in November 2014, then sold on a year later to KSL Capital Partners, reportedly for £70million to £80million.
A Cameron House spokesman declined to comment.