Openreach fined £1.3m after flood engineer drowns

TELECOMS giant Openreach has been fined £1.34million after an engineer was swept to his death in a flooded river.

- Liz Perkins

Alun Owen, 32, had not had full training when he was sent to look at village customers' broken phone lines, a court heard.

The father of five-year-old twin girls slipped as he waded into the River Aber to throw a new cable to the opposite bank in October 2020.

Alun, of Bethesda, North Wales, was found dead later that evening.

At Llandudno magistrates' court, Openreach admitted breaching health and safety laws for staff working near water.