Hugo Boss, the company made famous by its luxury fashion goods, has been fined £1.2 million after a four-year-old boy was killed by a changing room mirror that fell onto him.
The incident took place in June 2013 when an 18 stone, 7ft high mirror in the brand’s Oxfordshire pop-up store was left balancing in position when it should have been securely fixed.
Oxford Crown Court heard that four-year-old Austen Harrison had been on a shopping trip with his parents when the mirror fell and crushed him underneath.
He was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but sustained irreversible brain damage due to his head injuries and died four days later.
While monthly health and safety checks were introduced to all Hugo Boss stores from 2000, they were not carried out in the store at the centre of the case, which had been quickly converted by contractors from a previous unit operated by Burberry.
Presiding Judge Peter Ross said that Hugo Boss had a “corporate responsibility” and that even to the “untrained eye” it would have been obvious that a balancing mirror was a significant health and safety risk.
The court heard how the mirror came with instructions which specified that it should be fixed to a reinforced wall and not stood against a stud wall.
The Judge also observed that there had been numerous “near misses” with mirrors at other stores nationwide.
In 2009, a number of mirrors fell at Hugo Boss’s London shops, which resulted in senior staff and UK-wide management teams undergoing urgent health and safety training.
However, their training was not used at Bicester Village, which ultimately resulted in the fatal incident.
Hugo Boss pleaded guilty to committing offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, in relation to the Austen Harrison case, and the company was fined £1.2 million as a result.