A Shropshire care home operator has been fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £41,997after the death of a vulnerable patient in one of its residences. The patient was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to the cellar with his wheelchair on top of him. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that although the door to the cellar had a key pad latch and was fitted with a self-closing device it opened inwards directly onto the stairs without a sufficient landing area. The investigation also found that a risk assessment had not been produced for access and use of the cellar. The inspector commented that the door was in regular use by kitchen and maintenance staff and as the deceased was unlikely to have known the key pad number to the door, the door cannot have been properly closed and locked.

A West Yorkshire packaging firm was fined £120,000 with £849 costs for safety breaches after a worker suffered life-changing injuries.

On the day of the incident the injured person, having finished his normal driving duties for the day, was asked to work in the factory. A supervisor set up a circular saw and demonstrated the task of pushing stacked cardboard sheets through the saw to pre-determined sizes. During the demonstration, no push stick or jig was used to push the cardboard through the blade.

After the demonstration the worker was left unsupervised. As he pushed the cardboard through the blade by hand, the cardboard twisted and pulled his right hand into the blade. The worker’s injuries were so severe that part of his index finger and ring finger had to be amputated from his right dominant hand, with his middle finger being damaged.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company did not provide suitable and sufficient training, supervision and assessment of the risks that were necessary for the safe use of the circular saw.

A Devon haulage and site clearance company has been fined £14,000, ordered to pay £5,000 costs and received a £90,000 Proceeds of Crime confiscation order for dumping thousands of tonnes of soil and stone on farmland. The offences came to light after the Environment Agency examined waste transfer notes which identified the company as the source of the waste material.