Welcome to HSE prosecutions in brief. An overview of this weeks prosecutions by the HSE.
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Illegal gas fitter receives two-year prison sentence
An Accrington man who falsely claimed he was a registered gas engineer has been sent to prison for two years for endangering people’s lives at two properties in Lancashire, including a baby boy.
Stephen Jonathan was prosecuted by the HSE, for committing a total of six offences, after his work was classified as being ‘immediately dangerous’.
Burnley Crown Court heard the 35-year-old’s actions had put residents at risk of being killed or seriously injured in a gas explosion or from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The court was told Mr Jonathan falsely claimed he was a registered gas engineer when he installed a new boiler at a community nurse’s home on Willows Lane in Accrington on 22 October 2010. Geoff Street regularly looked after his sister’s baby in his house, without knowing the boiler was operating dangerously.
An engineer was sent to repair the boiler after it was reported to the manufacturer as being faulty. He classified the installation as being ‘immediately dangerous’, and disconnected it from the gas supply straight away.
Mr Jonathan’s work was reported to Gas Safe Register, which holds the official list of legal and safe gas engineers, and HSE, which carried out an investigation. It found that he had also installed central heating at a house on Avondale Road in Lancaster during November and December 2010.
He had again claimed to be a registered gas engineer, and the installation of the boiler had again been classified as being ‘immediately dangerous’.
Stephen Jonathan, of Collins Drive, Baxenden, admitted putting lives at risk, and of carrying out gas work while falsely claiming to be a registered gas engineer. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison at Burnley Crown Court on 20 October 2011.
Read full story here.
Louth man fined after joiner injured in scaffold fall
A man from Louth has been fined after a joiner broke his leg falling from scaffolding in the town.
Self-employed Mario Mazzarella was working on scaffolding built for him by Panther Scaffolding at the Helal Restaurant on Mercer Row in Louth on 9 November 2009, when a bus collided with the structure that had been built out over the road, causing him to fall more than four metres to the ground. Passengers on the bus were unharmed.
Andrew Mark Judge, trading as Panther Scaffolding, was prosecuted by the HSE for failing to ensure that the workers, who erected the scaffolding the day before, worked in a safe way and that the finished scaffolding was a safe structure for its user and vehicles moving through the town.
Mr Judge, 44, of Old Main Road, Scamblesby, Louth, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1)(c) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Skegness Magistrates’ Court today. He was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £3,739 costs.
Read full story here.
Exeter firm fined over worker’s injury
A visiting worker suffered severe leg injuries when he was hit by a reversing telehandler vehicle at a waste transfer site near Exeter.
Andrew Grist, of Newton Abbot, suffered a detached calf muscle, a near severed toe and broken bones in his foot and was off work for six months after the incident at Kenbury Wood Waste Management Centre.
The court heard that the telehandler was one of a number of similar vehicles working on the site. The telehandler had a blindspot because of its size, but there was no device, such as a reversing camera, fitted to the vehicle which could have prevented the incident. Site operators are required to ensure drivers of vehicles which might cause a risk of injury have all round visibility.
Mr Grist had got out of his vehicle on the site, believing he had received a “thumbs-up” signal from the operator of the machine emptying his lorry. He understood this to mean he could leave the site and get his lorry ready to go. It was at this point he was struck by the telehandler.
Leese’s Ltd, of Oak Tree Place, Manaton Close, Matford Business Park, Exeter pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 28 (e) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. They were fined £4,500 and ordered to pay £818 costs by Exeter magistrates on 18th October 2011.
Read full story here.
Cemex fined after man killed in explosion
A multinational cement firm has been fined £200,000 following the death of a worker in an explosion at its Rugby premises.
The HSE prosecuted CEMEX UK Operations Ltd, which makes cement and building products for the construction industry, after the death of 28-year-old Peter Reynolds, of Rugby, on 15 January 2008.
The force of the explosion was so great that it blew Mr Reynolds out through the side of the building onto the road ten metres below. An ambulance crew attended but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Leamington Spa Crown Court heard the married man, whose daughter Kayleigh was 18 months old at the time of his death, was treating waste cement dust in the bypass dust plant at the company’s Rugby Cement Works in Lawford Road.
While he was clearing a blockage in the lower mixer, there was a violent explosion of steam and dust from inside the machine.
HSE’s investigation into the incident found that CEMEX had recognised the potential for blockages to cause explosions as steam pressure built up within the mixer, but took no action to prevent them.
The court also heard the company had failed to review its risk assessment following a previous incident in May 2006, when another man was injured using the same machine. This explosion bent a metal-cladded external wall, pushing it out by 50cm.
CEMEX Operations UK Ltd, of Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £172,000 costs.
Read full story here.
Dorset manufacturing firm fined after worker injured
A Dorset manufacturing firm was today fined after a lorry delivery driver was run over by a fork lift truck.
Kelvin Davey, 61, from Verwood, Dorset, had both his ankles and lower legs broken when the fork lift truck reversed into him at Verplas Ltd’s Dorset site on 9 March 2010.
Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court heard that there was not enough separation of the work area used by both pedestrians and fork lift trucks at the premises.
Although Mr Davey has now returned to work at the company, which manufactures ventilation accessories for the white goods industry, his injuries were initially thought to be severe enough to have ended his career.
Verplas Ltd of Unit 7, Verwood Industrial Estate, Blackhill, Verwood, Dorset, pleaded guilty to Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and were fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,407.
Read full story here.
Food firm sentenced over Wigan worker’s injuries
- A food processing firm has been sentenced after one of its employees suffered serious injuries to her arm at a Wigan factory.
The worker needed a metal plate in her left arm after it became caught in a potato blanching machine at the plant on Dobson Park Way in Ince.
Bakkavor Foods Ltd, which packages salads and fresh vegetables, was prosecuted by the HSE for failing to ensure the dangerous parts on the machine were guarded.
Bakkavor Foods Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company, of West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £2,026 in prosecution costs on 21 October 2011.
Read full story here.
