A manufacturing company has been fined after an employee was drawn into a machine and suffered multiple fractures to his left arm.

The man, who is from Newcastle, had recently started working as a manufacturing operative for Gates Engineering & Services UK Limited at its site on Bassington Drive in Cramlington, and was undergoing training when he was assisting another worker on the company’s 60-metre lathe on 12 November 2021. The new employee, who was 22 at the time of the incident, was working at the rear of the lathe when the rubber material he had just applied fell from the steel mandrel.

He instinctively reached to grab the material, and at the same time the lathe started, pulling him into the machine. This resulted in his arm being broken in two places.

The machine was used to wrap rubber and other materials around a steel mandrel to form hose bodies for industrial hoses. The system of work at Gates Engineering involved one employee working at the front of the machine operating the controls, with a second employee assisting from the rear, helping to manually position the rubber materials being applied.

However, the manufacturer’s manual for the machine stated that the lathe should be enclosed with a fixed perimeter guard, and that access to the work area by persons other than the machine operator prevented.

The HSE’s investigation found the company had failed to take effective measures to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the lathe, and that its system of work required employees to stand in an area that was meant to be enclosed by guards.

Gates Engineering & Services UK Limited, of Bassington Industrial Estate, Bassington Drive, Cramlington, Northumberland, 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 £3,653.70 in costs.

This is valid as of 31st May 2023.

[Ireland] A Co. Wicklow construction worker has been handed a nine-month suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to Regulation 29(1)(f) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013, following an incident on 8 December 2016 when he failed to make proper use of a large nine tonne site dumper.

The construction worker had driven the dumper whilst carrying two passengers. The dumper was not designed to carry passengers, and, in so doing, he also failed to take reasonable care to protect the safety, health and welfare of other persons who may be affected by his actions. One of the passengers fell from the moving dumper, causing life changing injures.

There were two other parties associated with the incident previously before the courts – the Main Site contractor and Project Supervisor for the Construction Stage (PSCS) and the Site manager/Site Engineer on the project.

In 2021 in Bray Circuit Court the Main Site Contractor having pleaded to Regulation 19(1)(b) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Construction Regulations 2013 had a fine of €15,000 imposed on them for failing to implement their duties as PSCS.

In May 2022 in Bray Circuit Court, the Site Manager/Site Engineer for the project, having also pleaded guilty to Regulation16(b) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013, had an 18 month suspended jail sentence imposed on him in relation to his failure to implement his duties.

This is valid as of 30th May 2023.

A landlord has been jailed for 13 months for fire safety breaches following a 2019 basement ‘flat’ fire that led to the death of a 32-year-old man.

The “entirely avoidable” tragedy was caused by a fire that started from the cooker situated in the basement or cellar of a mid-terraced house in Harehills, confirmed West Yorkshire Police.

It is believed that the downstairs space had been unofficially converted into a flat and housed Philip Sheridan, on housing benefits, who had signed a tenancy agreement with landlord Humrazz Shahid in 2013.

When the fire broke out, Sheridan attempted to escape through the door of the flat and suffered several burns to his body. He died in hospital a number of days later “as a result of complications arising from severe smoke inhalation”.

In an inquest, both the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the local authority concluded that the premises was “unsuitable for human habitation, due in part to the inadequacy of the fire detection and escape measures”.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the entrance door to the flat had been partially blocked by the cooker. It was an inward-opening door and did not have a suitable handle. Additionally, no smoke or fire alarm had been fitted at the property at the time.

Shahid is believed to have been responsible for the management of the property since 2008 and admitted to the “offence of failing to discharge a duty owed under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974”.

On 3 May 2023, he appeared at court for sentencing where he was immediately given a 13-month jail term.

This is valid as of 30th May 2023.

Two major transport companies have been fined a combined total of £2.2m after ‘a loving dad and husband’ was killed when he was hit by a HGV in Birmingham.

Neil Roberts, 60, was a depot manager of Turners (Soham) Limited when he was struck by a reversing HGV on 30 August 2019. The incident happened at the premises of The Haulage Group Ltd (previously known as Howell Group Ltd), on Inkerman Street, when the vehicle reversed out of a parking space in the transport yard.

The HSE’s investigation found the companies had failed to manage the risk associated with workplace transport.

Turners (Soham) Limited of Fordham Road, Newmarket, Suffolk pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £1.9m and ordered to pay costs of £7,300.

The Haulage Group Ltd of Unit 28 Maybrook Business Park, Minworth, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,300.

In a statement issued by his family, Mr Roberts, from the West Midlands, was described as ‘a loving dad’ and ‘caring husband’.

“He did anything and everything he could to provide for his family. Family meant everything to him, he wasn’t a man of many words, he mainly showed his emotions through doing and showing you how much he cared. He was always there to help.

“Dad has left a massive hole in all of our lives, and nothing will be able to fill that. Not a day goes by where we don’t think of him and wish he was still here with us and how unfair it all is.

“Nearly four years have passed, and every happy moment since has been tinged with sadness and every happy moment going forward will be tinged with sadness as Dad isn’t here.”

This is valid as of 26th May 2023.

Two company directors have been jailed after a wall collapsed killing five men – with both firms having to pay combined fines of £1.6 million.

Wayne Anthony Hawkeswood and Graham John Woodhouse ran a Birmingham metal recycling business where a wall toppled over and killed five workers.

The pair were found guilty on multiple counts after a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court in November last year. They were back in the same court on 15 May where they each received nine-month custodial sentences.

Ousmane Kaba Diaby, Saibo Sumbundu Sillah, Bangally Tunkara Dukuray, Almamo Kinteh Jammeh and Mahamadou Jagana Jagana were all killed when a 45-tonne wall collapsed on them. They were agency workers working at the site occupied by Hawkeswood Metal Recycling Ltd and Shredmet Ltd (now trading as Ensco 10101 Ltd), in the Nechells area of Birmingham.

At nearly 12-feet high, the Vee block wall was built on site and made up of 30 concrete blocks – each the size of a domestic fridge-freezer and weighing the same as a large family car. The blocks are designed to slot together.

The five men were part of a group of eight agency workers brought to the site on 7 July 2016. At around 8am that morning, seven of them began the process of clearing the bay of swarf – metal filings – to make way for more scrap metal.

Just 15 minutes after starting work, the wall collapsed on the five men, killing them instantly. A sixth man suffered serious leg injuries, while another was fortunate enough to have just stepped outside the bay before the wall came down. The eighth member of the team was not in the bay at all as he had gone to another part of the site to retrieve brooms.

The HSE’s investigation found the wall had previously been taken down then reassembled. The adjoining bay was full of around 263 tonnes of scrap metal briquettes – each roughly the size of a large tin of vegetables. The combined weight of the machine-pressed metal briquettes was the equivalent of six fully loaded HGVs.

Following the incident, the defendants appointed structural engineers who carried out an assessment, the result being a reduction in wall heights and bays being clearly marked with maximum fill lines.

Both directors were found guilty of four charges each – failing to discharge the duty to which they were subject by virtue of section 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Hawkeswood Metal Recycling Limited and Ensco 10101 Limited (known at the time as Shredmet) were also found guilty of the two identical counts bringing the total number of convictions to 12.

Hawkeswood Metal Recycling was fined £1million while Ensco 10101 Limited must pay £600,000. The judge also ordered £775,000 to be paid in prosecution costs.

This is valid as of 23rd May 2023.

A joinery firm in South East London has been fined £20,000 for failing to control its employees’ exposure to wood dust.

F&E Joinery Limited, in Herne Hill, was inspected in May 2022 as part of a HSE campaign targeting woodworking businesses due to the significant health risks associated with exposure to wood dust, including the risk of developing occupational asthma.

During the visit the inspector identified multiple failings related to control of exposure to wood dust, including excessive levels of settled dust around the site.

The inspection found some of the company’s machines had been disconnected from the local exhaust ventilation (LEV) system, which is used to extract wood dust at source during machining of wood. There was no way to connect other machines to the system. LEV significantly reduces the amount of wood dust that becomes airborne and inhaled when machined. There was also no evidence that settled wood dust was being cleaned up.

The company had been served with an enforcement notice relating to their control of wood dust on two previous occasions spanning over ten years.

F&E Joinery Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 7(1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (as amended) Regulations 2002 and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,500.

This is valid as of 11th May 2023.

An unlicensed asbestos removal company has been fined £80,000 after its director was jailed after failing to ensure the safe removal of the dangerous product.

In September 2021 at an address in Stockport, Asbestos Boss Limited removed an asbestos insulating board ceiling from a domestic integral garage with little to no control measures in place. The asbestos waste was then dumped at the property of the resident, littering the road and pavement with asbestos material.

Asbestos Boss Limited and its director/manager, Daniel Luke Cockcroft, advertised as a licensed asbestos removal company and removed licensable material from domestic properties.

The joint investigation by the HSE and Stockport Trading Standards revealed a number of similar cases of licensed work being done across the country. There were little to no precautions taken and so their own workers, as well as anybody at the premises they were working on, were at serious risk of exposure to asbestos. It was also discovered that Asbestos Boss Limited provided fake air test certificates and waste transfer notes to customers and had also falsified asbestos training certificates and insurance documents. The company and Daniel Cockcroft also breached a prohibition notice on several occasions.

The additional sites identified by Stockport Trading Standards proved that Asbestos Boss had breached the Prohibition Notice and caused additional spread and exposure. One such case was the removal of asbestos insulating board from 20 service cupboards which Asbestos Boss charged £3,000 for their illegal work. The work was of such poor quality, it has resulted in the site owners receiving remedial quotes from licensed contractors in the region of £50-£64,000 to make them safe.

At Manchester Magistrate’s Court in March, company director Daniel Luke Cockcroft of Darnes Avenue, Halifax, pleaded guilty to all charges and was immediately imprisoned for 10 months and ordered to pay victim compensation.

At the same hearing in March, Asbestos Boss Limited of Old Gloucester Street, London was found guilty of breaching regulations 8(1) and 11(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. They were also found guilty of one charge relating to the failure to comply with a prohibition notice at two separate addresses which prevented them from working with licensed asbestos materials. The company was also sentenced in relation to their conviction for fraud in relation to falsifying training certificates, a business insurance document and unauthorised use of trade association logos. This gave the impression that the business was credible and that workers were adequately trained and competent in relation to asbestos removal.

In the sentencing hearing, the company failed to attend or offer any mitigation and was sentenced to pay a fine of £80,000 as well as compensating the victims for the full costs of the work paid for at the time. This combined compensation order totalled around £10,000.

This is valid as of 9th May 2023.

A concrete manufacturer has been fined £1 million after a 24-year-old man died at a site in Nottingham.

Stewart Ramsay, from Mansfield, was working for Creagh Concrete Products Ltd (CCP) at its Thurgarton Lane site in Hoveringham when he suffered fatal head injuries on 15 March 2017.

Mr. Ramsay, known as “Stew”, was trying to fix a problem that happened as he and colleagues were using a metal grab to unload Spantherm, a concrete building product, from some trailers. The metal grab shouldn’t have been in use.

Mr. Ramsay’s head became trapped in the jaws of the grab after a rope connected to the locking lever snapped. Even though the rope was tied in a double-knot, the locking mechanism released the jaws of the grab as Mr. Ramsay pulled on it, causing fatal injuries.

CCP were sentenced at Nottinghamshire Crown Court, after they admitted failing to ensure its employees carried out lifting operations safely and without training and information being in place.

An investigation by the Health and Safety executive (HSE) showed that CCP did not have a safe system of work for the use of the grab and had not carried out a risk assessment to identify risks for its use. Both the grab and a fork lift truck being used at the time were in poor condition. Neither should have been in service at the time of the incident. CCP had failed to ensure that these pieces of work equipment had been maintained in an efficient state, efficient working order or in good repair.

Creagh Concrete Products Limited of Hoveringham Nottinghamshire pleaded guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare at work of all its employees. The company was fined £1 million and ordered to pay costs of £47,521.08.

This is valid as of 18th April 2023.

A garden landscaping company has been fined £600,000 after an employee died while loading a lorry.

Brian White, 59, was working for East Yorkshire firm Kelkay Limited when he was operating a forklift truck at the company’s site on Heck and Pollington Lane, Pollington, on 15 June 2020.

Brian was fatally injured when the lorry he was loading was moved by the driver, pulling the forklift truck over and trapping him underneath.

Investigating, the HSE found Kelkay Limited’s risk assessment failed to take into account the possibility of lorries moving while they are being loaded. The HSE also found that the systems of work provided for ensuring that vehicles were not moved during loading activities were inadequate.

Kelkay Limited, of Heck And Pollington Lane, Pollington, East Yorkshire, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £600,000 and ordered to pay £20,848.71 in costs.

This is valid as of 13th April 2023.

Morrisons supermarket has been fined £3.5 million following a prosecution by Tewkesbury Borough Council for failing to ensure the health and safety of an epileptic employee who died after falling from a shop stairway.

On 25 September 2014, Matthew Gunn, 27, was using the stairs in the supermarket’s Tewkesbury store when he is believed to have had a seizure. The fall caused severe head injuries and he sadly died in hospital on 7 October 2014.

Morrisons – which was aware of Mr Gunn’s epileptic condition – was deemed to have missed opportunities to ensure his safety. It was charged with three health and safety breaches which it denied:

•   Failure to ensure the health and safety of an employee who had epilepsy.

•   Failure to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the employee who had epilepsy.

•   Failure to review risks to which an employee with epilepsy might be exposed.

Morrisons admitted a fourth charge of failing to supply the council with requested information relating to the death of the employee.

However, on 2 February 2023, following a three-week trial at Cirencester Courthouse, the jury found Morrisons guilty on all four charges.

Sentencing took place on 17 March. The judge placed the offences in the highest category of culpability and harm, and Morrisons was fined £3.5m.

The prosecution was undertaken by One Legal, a legal service shared by Cheltenham Borough Council, Gloucester City Council, Stroud District Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council.

This is valid as of 3rd April 2023.

A dental supply company has been fined £30k after an explosion of flammable liquid led to a fire at its premises in Halifax.

John Winters and Company Limited pleaded guilty to safety breaches after one of its employees was put at serious risk in the explosion that led to flames ripping through the building.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that, on 23 April 2021, the worker had been decanting heptane from a metal drum into a plastic bulk container. Other employees were also put at risk when the explosion resulted in a fire spreading rapidly throughout other production buildings. Nobody was physically injured in the fire which was tackled by more than 60 firefighters at its height.

The HSE’s investigation found that the decanting of flammables had been unsafely undertaken at the company for several years despite well-known industry guidance.

The splash filling of Heptane generated a static charge creating a spark which caused an explosion during the decanting process, flammable material then spread further as there were no containment measures. The poor practice of storing cardboard boxes nearby fuelled the fire allowing it to spread significantly.

John Winters and Company Limited of Washer Lane, Halifax, West Yorkshire pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £8,030.94 in costs.

This is valid as of 24th March 2023.

An asbestos removal company has been convicted and its director given a prison sentence after failing to ensure the safe removal of asbestos.

Asbestos Boss Limited, also known as Asbestos Team and its director, Daniel Luke Cockcroft, advertised as a licensed asbestos removal company and removed licensable material from domestic properties throughout Great Britain.

A HSE investigation found that Asbestos Boss Limited had never held a licence and their poor working practices resulted in the large scale spread of asbestos and exposure to homeowners and their families. Little to no precautions were taken by Asbestos Boss Limited and so their own workers, as well as anybody at the premises they were working on, were at serious risk of exposure to asbestos. The company and their director also breached a prohibition notice on several occasions.

Asbestos Boss Limited of Old Gloucester Street, London was found guilty of breaching regulations 8(1) and 11(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. They were also found guilty of one charge relating to the failure to comply with a prohibition notice at two separate addresses which prevented them from working with licensed asbestos materials. The company are awaiting sentence [at time of writing].

Company director Daniel Luke Cockcroft of Darnes Avenue, Halifax, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in relation to the company’s failing of regulation 8(1) and 11(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 as well as the charge for breach of a prohibition notice. He was immediately imprisoned for 6 months and ordered to pay victim compensation.

Asbestos Boss Limited and Mr Daniel Cockcroft, of Darnes Avenue, Pyenest, Halifax were also prosecuted by Stockport Trading Standards, in a jointly run case with HSE. Daniel Cockcroft and the company were both charged with fraud in relation to falsifying training certificates, a business insurance document and unauthorised use of trade association logos. This gave the impression that the business was credible and that workers were adequately trained and competent in relation to asbestos removal.

Daniel Cockcroft pleaded guilty to fraud and the company was also convicted. Daniel Cockcroft was sentenced to an additional 4 month in prison making a total prison term of 10 months. The company is awaiting sentence at an additional hearing.

Councillor Helen Foster-Grime, Stockport Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said: “Our Trading Standards team, work closely with other agencies and will do our utmost to ensure offenders like this, who carry out work with no regard for the safety of our residents, are brought to justice.

“I am delighted that these criminals have been held to account. The message is very clear – we will not tolerate this in Stockport and will take robust action wherever possible.”

This is valid as of 22nd March 2023.