Vue cinemas fined £750,000 over death of customer trapped by chair

Judge condemns chain’s ‘complete lack of risk assessment’ over seating fault that led to death of Ateeq Rafiq in 2018.

Cinema chain Vue has been fined £750,000 for safety breaches after a filmgoer died when he became trapped under a cinema chair leg-rest in 2018.

Ateeq Rafiq, 24, died in hospital after his neck became stuck under the powered chair, which was found to have blown a fuse in its control box, as he searched for his phone and keys after watching a movie.

At Birmingham crown court on Tuesday, Judge Heidi Kubik QC also ordered the company to pay £130,000 in costs, and said Rafiq died in “an accident that never should have happened”.

The judge said: “Nothing I can say can ameliorate the loss suffered by his wife and family.”

She said other members of the public were exposed to the same of risk of harm and “the complete lack of a risk assessment was a significant cause” behind the fatal incident.

At a hearing in April, Vue Entertainment Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of persons not employed by the company in connection with the use of powered cinema seating, and failing to make a “suitable and sufficient risk assessment” of a number of faulty seats.

A previous inquest in 2019 recorded a verdict of accidental death, with the jury foreman ruling there had been “missed opportunities to undertake comprehensive safety checks of the chairs”, according to the BBC.