Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
Man’s fingers severed at Telford factory
A food manufacturer has been fined £10,000 after a cleaner lost two fingers in a potato processing machine at its Telford site.
Swancote Foods, of Floods Ferry Road, Doddington, March, Cambridgeshire, which supplies cooked potato ingredients to manufacturers of prepared foods, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
The company was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £5,614 costs.
Read full story here.
Carlisle firm fined over death at tractor pulling contest
An engineering firm has been fined £20,000 following the death of a Dutch father-of-three in a high-speed crash at a tractor pulling competition in Lancashire.
AW Blake Ltd, of Ivegill near Carlisle, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by putting lives at risk. The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 in prosecution costs.
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Firms fined after worker killed on M25
Construction firm Carillion Highway Maintenance Limited and its traffic management subcontractor have been fined a total of £202,000 after a worker employed by another subcontractor was killed while working on the M25 motorway.
Carillion Highway Maintenance Limited pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £200,000 with £50,000 costs.
Traffic Management (North East) Limited was found guilty of breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and fined £2,000 with costs of £120,000, it is in administration.
The jury did not agree on the charge against CD Fencing Ltd under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was formally acquitted when the prosecution concluded it was not in the public interest to proceed to re-trial.
The driver of the lorry had been previously convicted of driving without due care and attention in a case brought by the Crown Prosecution Service.
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National Film and Television School fined after volunteer is paralysed
The National Film and Television School has been fined £17,500 after a volunteer was left permanently paralysed after falling 2.25 metres from a mock staircase on set.
The National Film and Television School, of Beaconsfield Film Studios, Station Road, Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The organisation was fined £17,500 and ordered to pay costs of £4,787.
Read full story here.
Death due to safety failings at textile firm
A textile worker at Huddersfield’s Westwood Yarns factory was killed after being crushed in a huge baling machine, a court heard.
Westwood Yarns Ltd, of Worchester Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
The company was fined £60,000 at Bradford Crown Court yesterday (7 June) and ordered to pay £20,625 in costs.
Read full story here.
Contractor fined after injuries to public
A Harrow construction firm has been fined £8,000 after poorly secured panelling fell from a building under refurbishment and injured two passers-by.
Brendan Flynn Construction Limited, of Watford Road, Northwood, Harrow, today pleaded guilty of contravening section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (8 June). The company was fined a total of £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £14,760.
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Glass giant fined £20,000 for workers’ injuries at Bristol site
Two workers were badly injured after a trolley load of glass panes fell on them at one of the UK’s most well-known manufacturers, a Bristol court has heard.
Pilkington United Kingdom Ltd, of Hall Lane, Latham, Ormskirk, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined £20,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £5,646.
Read full story here.
Worker killed in trench collapse
A site foreman has been fined after a labourer in his team was killed when a trench collapsed.
William Parry, 33, of High Valleyfield, Fife, pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to breaching Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974, and was fined £240
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