Vue Entertainment, which operates multiplex cinemas throughout the UK, has been fined ￡750,000 and ordered to pay costs of ￡130,000 for failures that caused the death of a cinemagoer. The incident occurred on 9 March 2018 at the Star City Theatre in Nechells, central Birmingham when Ateeq Rafiq became trapped under a powered reclining seat after searching for his keys and phone in one of the complex's three luxury Gold Class screens. The weight exerted by the seat was equivalent to three-quarters of a tonne and Mr Rafiq died a week later from catastrophic brain injuries. He was aged 24 and a father of one child. The investigation by Birmingham City Council, supported by HSE mechanical and electrical engineers, found that Vue Entertainment had moved the powered reclining seats to Star City in 2013 from its cinema at the Lowry, Manchester, which was undergoing refurbishment. Vue Entertainment placed the seats in an unused screen at Star City. It failed, however, to carry out a risk assessment when the seats were moved, or before they were used at Star City. Had it done so, it would have identified that some of the seats had the wrong type of foot-rest actuators fitted (push-pull type); and that the actuator was physically attached to the footrest, which meant that it pulled the footrest down, resulting in an entrapment risk. Following the incident, 15 of the 141 powered reclining seats in the Gold Class screens at Star City were found to have the wrong type of actuators.
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