Homeless man dies from ‘catastrophic injuries’ after bin he was sleeping in is taken to recycling plant

Ranjit Singh’s body was discovered among piles of rubbish

Biffa Recycling plant in Tipton near Birmingham (Google Maps)

A homeless man has been found crushed to death after the bin he was sleeping in was taken to a recycling plant.

Ranjit Singh’s body was discovered among piles of rubbish by workers at Biffa Recycling’s plant in Tipton near Birmingham last September, an inquest heard.

A post-mortem found the 48-year-old had sustained “catastrophic crushing injuries including a broken spine and shattered pelvis”, adding that the injuries were “consistent with the large claw machinery found at recycling sites”.

Mark Bradshaw, a conveyer belt supervisor at Biffa Recycling, said he shut operations down as soon as he spotted Mr Singh’s body on the line, adding that he called the emergency services immediately.

Mr Singh was well known to locals in the area of Smethwick that the bin is believed to have been transported from.

He was last seen on Smethwick High Street the night before he died, and is known to have regularly slept in bins behind a parade of shops.

The post-mortem found Mr Singh had more than twice the legal driving limit of alcohol in his blood at the time of his death, which was ruled by the inquest jury to have been an accident, with death “caused by multiple injuries after being crushed by machinery”.