A Mearns company has been fined £240,000 after it was ruled the death of a lorry driver could have “easily” been prevented.
David Leslie, 49, was crushed when a two-tonne grain bin fell on him in the village of Drumlithie, near Stonehaven, last year.
Mr Leslie was a visiting driver picking up a load from East Coast Viners Grain on March 18.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Mr Leslie was helping with the feed loading operation when the fully-loaded bin fell from a forklift truck.
He was standing near the base of a grain elevator and was ready to pull the lever to release the feed, once in position.
The forklift driver picked up the grain bin and raised the forks to about five and a half feet for better visibility.
The load started to move on the forks and he shouted a warning but Mr Leslie was in front of the forklift when the bin fell off.
Mr Leslie, who was from Balmedie in north Aberdeenshire, died after his head, neck and chest were crushed.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation judged the firm had no safe system of work for the task, and operators were left to carry it out in any way they saw fit.
The company had assumed the forklift training they had received from an external provider would cover safe working.
HSE also found that despite previous incidents of grain bins slipping from the forks of the trucks, no mechanism or device to secure them had been installed.
The firm pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.