A company boss was fined £10,000 on Tuesday over the death of a man who drowned while diving for golf balls.
She told the court it was clear from all the information before her that Mr Crothers “was always full of fun, very playful and loved to tell stories to his family”. Golf Balls NI ltd, of which he as the sole director, entered a guilty plea to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of non-employees on 26 October 2021. Opening the facts of the case as she dealt with the case today , Judge Bagnall outlined how the company was created in 2020 in order to retrieve, clean and sell golf balls from water hazards at various courses throughout NI.
He went back in to look for his father-in-law but when he could not find him, Best rang 999 and police and the air ambulance attended the scene. Tragically, it was the police diver who also worked for Golf Balls NI who found the body of his friend, a golf ball in his hand. In the incident involving Mr Crothers there were several issues including that he was using scuba gear, the servicing of some of his equipment was out of date and his weight belt was cable tied on which then prevented him from dumping it and impeded him from being able to surface quickly.