A Cheshire-based storage manufacturer has become the third company in the UK to be convicted of corporate manslaughter.

Lion Steel Equipment Ltd pleaded guilty to the offence in relation to the death of Steven Berry, 45, who died after falling through a fragile roof panel at a site in Hyde, Cheshire in May 2008. Individual charges of gross negligence manslaughter were originally laid against three company directors – Kevin Palliser, Richard Williams and Graham Coupe – but charges against two of them were dropped earlier this week after the judge ruled that evidence could not go before a jury.

The prosecution then agreed to drop the charges against the third director, and separate charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act, as it became clear that the company would plead guilty to the corporate manslaughter offence.

The sentence, and the size of any fine, has yet to be revealed and will be watched closely by legal experts. Lion Steel Equipment, which had around 100 employees at the time of the incident, is the largest employer so far to be convicted for corporate manslaughter since the offence was introduced in April 2008.

The first was Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd, which was fined £385,000 last year following the death of an employee in a trench collapse. The second was Northern Irish pig farm company JMW Farms Ltd, which was fined £187,500 plus £13,000 costs after an employee died from crush injuries in its meal-mixing plant.