No charges will be laid against Pyengana Dairy over the death of a worker, due to insufficient evidence and the deregistering of the company.
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The decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to not lay charges came more than five years after Mr Clark was killed, and follows a Worksafe Tasmania investigation and a coronial inquest.
Mr Clark died after he was electrocuted by a wrongly wired dishwasher at the farm's cafe on October 20, 2015.
A coronial investigation found a safety switch was not installed, the 56-year-old cook was not properly trained by his employer, and the WorkSafe investigation was "inadequate" and "incomplete" as the electrical works at the business were never investigated.
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In November the Clark family received a letter from Worksafe's chief executive Robyn Pearce confirming the file would be reviewed by the DPP and they would be implementing a plan to better support grieving families.
The review investigated the Worksafe file to determine whether a prosecution should be brought against the business in relation to its failure to provide training and information to Mr Clark as required under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012.
Ms Pearce passed on the findings of the review to Mr Clark's brother Dennis on Wednesday.
"I am advised that a decision has been made by the ODPP that no charges should be laid in relation to this allegation," she said in a letter.
"I once more thank you and Guy's family for the opportunity to learn from this investigation and will work to continue to improve our investigation processes to ensure just outcomes for injured workers and their families."
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The first reason given by the DPP, for not laying charges against the company, was there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an offence/offences contrary to the Act had been committed.
The second reason was because Pyengana Dairy was deregistered as a company, effective from January 8, and as it no longer existed as a legal entity, charges may not have been able to be laid against it or former officers.
Following Mr Clark's death, WorkSafe implemented a new procedure where all workplace fatality investigation files are referred to the DPP for review to ensure prosecutable failures were identified and charges laid if warranted.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
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