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The boss of a fruit-packing firm has been found guilty of manslaughter, after he sent two workers into an oxygen-deprived storage unit to select apples the right size for a competition.

The Daily Mail reports that 57-year-old fruit-packing boss Andrew Stocker from Bordon in Hampshire sent Scott Cain, 23 and Ashley Clarke, 24 into a storage unit to select suitable apples because he wanted to win best in show in a competition

A jury at Winchester Crown Court convicted Stocker over the deaths at the Blackmoor Estate in Liss in Hampshire, after hearing that he had ignored health and safety regulations by encouraging staff to use the “dangerous” procedure.

In order to collect the fruit, the men had had to enter a storage facility with just 1% oxygen available, which kept the fruit at peak condition.

Mr Cain and Mr Clarke were both found unconscious on top of crates of apples in a storage facility on the afternoon of Monday, 18 February, 2013.

Despite efforts by colleagues and paramedics to revive them, they were both were declared dead at the estate, which is owned by Tory peer Lord Selborne.

The court was told by the prosecution that Stocker – who had been on holiday in the Maldives at the time of the incident – had instructed Mr Cain to collect the sample fruit while he was away.

The apples were to be entered in the Marden Fruit Show, which is held twice a year in Kent.

The court heard that Stocker enjoyed the kudos of winning at the competition, rather than claiming the modest financial prizes.

The jury was told that he also encouraged the practice – nicknamed scuba diving – in which staff entered the storage units through a hatch in the roof while holding their breath, to duck inside cramped conditions to collect fruit samples.

The court heard that the air in the sealed units had oxygen levels that would lead to a person dying immediately after they ran out of breath in the facility.

Blackmoor Estate Ltd entered guilty pleas at an earlier hearing to three counts of contravening regulations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and not guilty to a fourth.

The charges relate to failing to provide adequate emergency plans and carrying out insufficient risk assessments, the Mail reports.

Mr Justice Akenhead adjourned the case against Stocker and the estate for sentence on July 1.

Stocker has been warned that the court is “considering all options, including imprisonment” at sentencing in July.

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Fatal injury claims usually have to be made within three years of death or injury leading to death; or the discovery that negligence contributed to death or another personal was liable for causing death – for example after a conviction for murder or manslaughter has been obtained, or a medical certificate shows an industrial disease such as asbestosis or mesothelioma was the cause of death or a contributing factor.

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