Mr Parsons, 59, was killed and another worker, Michael Crea, was injured when a 770kg condenser fell while they were trying to manoeuvre it into a closed-roof shipping container on December 7, 2017.
The company, Andrew Buchanan Engineering Ltd, was sentenced in the County Court after pleading guilty to two charges of failing to provide a safe workplace.
Judge Phillip Coish said an open-top shipping container would have allowed the sizeable object to be lowered into the container and then secured and a WorkSafe investigation concluded there “were no safe systems of work available” to crane the condenser into the open end of a closed-roof container.
The engineering company was hired by another New Zealand company to manage the dismantling and relocation of the plant equipment.
Judge Coish said company principal Andrew Buchanan was not present on the day of the accident.
“He frankly admitted the work should have stopped when he was not there supervising,” he said.
However, Judge Coish said the absence of Mr Buchanan or another supervisor allowed an unsafe system of work to be implemented by the deceased and co-workers.
“It is not in issue the extent of risk to death and injury from the breach is high,” Judge Coish said.
“It is serious because the work was unsupervised, and the unsafe system of work was implemented.”
The judge referred to the victim impact statement of Mr Parsons’ partner who said every aspect of her life had been affected by the devastating impact of the man she loved not coming home from work.
Judge Coish said the plan to insert the condenser as far as possible before lowering it on to skates and then using the crane to nudge it into the final position was flawed and a detailed investigation revealed there was no safe way of doing it.
“These highlighted the unsafe system of work, the risks to which the workers were exposed in undertaking the work and the risk control measures that should have been applied in undertaking the task,” he said.
The judge said an ex-gratia payment had been made by the company for funeral expenses and Mr Buchanan spoke at the funeral.
“I accept the company through its representatives is genuinely remorseful,” he said.
The court heard Andrew Buchanan Engineering Ltd paid Mr Buchanan $150,000 a year and a modest profit of $22,700 was forecast for the current financial year.
On the two charges Judge Coish imposed an aggregate fine of $300,000, which he said would have been $500,000 if not for the guilty plea.
