Published: 27 March, 2014
By ALICE HUTTON

DETECTIVES have been asked to review the possibility of criminal charges being brought as a result of the investigation into the death of a lawyer killed by a falling betting shop sign – including the potential for a corporate manslaughter prosecution.

The New Journal can reveal that Camden Council has handed a report on its investigation into the death of 27-year-old Jacob Marx to police.

The file, compiled by its health and safety and building control teams, includes interviews with a company thought to have put up the 30ft William Hill metal sign at the bookmakers’ branch in Camden Road, Camden Town.

Mr Marx died when it fell on his head during a storm in January 2013.

A spokesman for the council said that the report includes interviews which took place under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), including those with “a company who were in charge of maintaining and installing the sign”.

He added that William Hill, which is the leaseholder of the shop, is also scheduled to be interviewed. That will happen before a separate review of the circumstances of the death at a coroner’s court inquest scheduled for June.

Corporate manslaughter remains an option for future legal proceedings should police investigators decide to hand on the file to the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Mr Marx, who was from Gisborne in New Zealand, died shortly after the accident. He was working in Camden Town at the time of his death as part of a round-the-world trip with his girlfriend. 

Witnesses at the time raised concerns over the safety of the sign, which some claimed was attached to wooden backing that had rotted away, leaving it “buckled”.

A council spokesman said: “We carried out a full health and safety report. It involved the interview of one interested party, who are a company who were in charge of maintaining and installing the sign, and they have been interviewed under PACE. 

“We still have interviews to take place with William Hill that will be completed before the inquest in June. The file has been passed recently to the Met for consideration.”

He added: “Unfortunately, we are unable to release details of the health and safety report compiled by the council as this currently forms part of an ongoing police investigation.”

The property has been run as a betting shop intermittently since the 1960s. It was taken over in the 1980s by William Hill, now the second largest licensed betting shop chain in the country.

Planning documents held at the Town Hall show that William Hill, which has a second store in the same road, was granted permission to install a new sign in 2006, but noted that it was up to the applicant to make sure that the sign was maintained safely. It is not known if the sign was subsequently installed. 

The Met Police, Crown Prosecution Service and William Hill did not respond to requests for comment on the latest development in the investigation.