WorkSafe Victoria | A stonemasonry company which was the first to be convicted under Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws has been fined $3 million over the death of a worker fatally crushed at a Somerton warehouse.
In February 2024, LH Holding Management Pty Ltd, trading as Universal Stone and Marble, was fined $1.3 million with conviction in the Victorian Supreme Court after pleading guilty to a single charge of engaging in negligent conduct that constituted a breach of a duty owed to another person and caused their death.
The company’s sole director Laith Hanna, 48, was also convicted and placed on a two-year Community Corrections Order after pleading guilty to a single charge of being an officer of a company that committed workplace manslaughter, a contravention solely attributable to his failure to take reasonable care.
Following an appeal, the Victorian Supreme Court has set aside the company’s original fine and ordered it to pay a fine of $3 million. An appeal against Hanna’s sentence was dismissed.
In October 2021, 25-year-old subcontractor Michael Tsahrelias died after a forklift being operated by Hanna with a raised load on a sloping driveway tipped over and landed on top of him.
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