ICL Plastics pleads guilty to charges over factory explosion in 2004

The two companies charged over the explosion at a Glasgow plastics factory in May 2004 have pleaded guilty at Glasgow’s High Court to contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The hearing began this week. ICL Plastics, which owned the factory in Grovepark Mills, and ICL Tech will make their full pleas and mitigation to the court on the 27 and 28 August.

Four women and five men lost their lives in the explosion. The indictment against the two companies lists a further 33 people as having been injured, injured to their permanent disfigurement, and/or injured to their permanent impairment.

Three companies were operating in the four-storey building when the blast caused it to collapse – ICL Plastics, ICL Tech and the distribution company Stockline Plastics.

Stockline Plastics is one of the six companies within the ICL Plastics group and is not facing prosecution. The Stockline name is associated with the explosion because it was on the building destroyed.

In a statement today, ICL Plastics and ICL Tech said they had cooperated closely with the Crown and the Heath and Safety Executive and remain committed to maintaining employment and business relationships “which provide the stability and opportunity necessary for us all to move forward.”

ICL Plastics has created a memorial garden (pictured) for the nine victims of the disaster