Aylesbury gardening company fined £57k after life-changing warehouse fall

Magistrates ordered Garden Furniture Global Ltd, to pay a combined fine of over £57,000, in relation to a fall one of its employees endured at a warehouse.

It was proved that the company, which operates out of Chiltern View Nurseries in Aylesbury, was liable for the injury.

Bucks Council prosecuted the company for health and safety failings which led to an individual suffering serious head injuries.

Representatives from the company pleaded guilty to failing to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of its employees, when the case came before the District Judge at High Wycombe Magistrates Court last Friday (7 February).

The court heard that on Thursday 10 June, 2021, an employee who had been working at Garden Furniture Global Ltd through an employment agency undertaking general warehouse work, was loading a pallet on the mezzanine floor of the warehouse ready for his colleague to move it down with a forklift.

When the pallet had been loaded, the employee stepped to the side and lost his footing on the edge of the loading area. The mezzanine was unguarded, and he fell 3.4 metres to the ground below. High Wycombe Magistrates Court heard that his head injuries were ‘life-changing’.

Bucks Council officers ordered the company to stop using the mezzanine floor until it could be guarded.

District Judge Sharma enforced a £40,000 fine on the company and ordered it to pay £17,000 towards Bucks Council’s legal costs, and a victim surcharge of £190. The judge indicated that the incident and protocols represented a blatant breach of the law.

Councillor Mark Winn said: “The unguarded mezzanine floor was a very obvious risk to health and safety and one which could have been easily addressed with the installation of adequate barriers. There is no excuse for such an oversight which resulted in serious life-changing injuries for the employee involved. We hope this case will be a lesson to all employers to ensure that they take their health and safety at work responsibilities seriously.”