Price of life is a £100,000 fine

Steelwork design company Conder Structures Ltd has been fined £100,000 following the death of 16-year-old Chris Kesterton. At the court hearing earlier this month the company was also ordered to pay £60,000 costs.

Chris was killed on a construction site in Leicester on 28 November 2000. He had worked for Piper civil engineering for four weeks, and was killed when a steel column weighing nearly two tonnes fell on him.

On the day of sentencing, campaigners from around the country gathered outside the court to protest at both Chris's death and the government's failure to introduce a corporate killing law.

His mother Amanda Kesterton said: "To think the maximum penalty for this is a fine, is disgraceful, something has to be done the law needs to be changed as it will not act as a deterrent to these companies. A fine is not good enough".