Brewers Retail Inc., the company that runs the Beer Store, has been fined $175,000 in the workplace death of a man who drank windshield washer fluid mislabeled as vodka.

The man, identified by the Beer Store as John Whitcombe, was an employee of Brake Mobile Wash, which had been hired to wash delivery trucks at the Beer Store’s distribution centre in Brampton.

On April 8, 2012, Whitcombe and another worker found a liquor bottle filled with blue liquid, with a vodka label still attached. They both drank from the bottle, and he took it home and finished it that night.

The bottle contained methanol windshield washing fluid. Whitcombe later died of methanol poisoning. The other worker was hospitalized but survived.

The Ministry of Labour found that workers at the distribution centre regularly dispensed windshield washer fluid into empty liquor bottles, said spokesperson Matt Blajer.

Brewers Retail pleaded guilty to failing to acquaint a worker with a hazard in the handling, storage or use of a liquid chemical agent. In Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Justice of the Peace Lisa Ritchie imposed the fine and a 25 per cent victim surcharge.

Beer Store president Ted Moroz said that immediately after the death, workers were told to stop pouring windshield washer fluid into liquor bottles.

“I wouldn’t say it was a practice, but we unfortunately found out it had happened in a few of our trucks,” he said. “We changed it right away.”

He extended his condolences to Whitcombe’s family and said the Beer Store has been working with the ministry to improve standards.

“We accept the findings of the court in this matter and we will continue to more than double and triple our efforts to ensure that we have the highest possible health and safety standards in place.”