A TIMBER merchant has been fined £150,000 after an accident at its Bradford depot left an employee badly injured.

The accident, at Arnold Laver’s Manningham site on Canal Road, involved wood items falling from the top deck of a two deck trailer, hitting an employee and crushing his leg.

Representatives of the Sheffield based company, which employs over 100 people in Bradford, appeared at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to a charge of failing to discharge the health safety and welfare duty to an employee.

The accident happened at the Manningham Sawmills site on July 27 2019 and involved one of two double decker trailers used by the company for storage.

Goods were stored on both levels of the trailer, and on the day in question Mark Thompson, an employee of the company, was clearing up debris at the trailer after unloading pallets from the bottom deck.

One arm supporting the top deck of the trailer had already been removed when, at around 4pm, another employee attempted to remove a second arm.

When he did the top deck partially collapsed, with items falling on Mr Thompson and knocking him to the ground. The weight of the items also badly injured his leg.

Colleagues used a fork-lift to secure the top deck, and an ambulance was called.

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At Tuesday’s case, which had been brought by the Health and Safety Executive, the court heard that Mr Thompson was still undergoing physiotherapy to recover from his injuries.

David Beaton, prosecuting for the HSE, added: “He still worries what could have happened to him in different circumstances.”

He said the company had not provided staff with adequate training on how to use the trailers - which were removed from the site shortly after the accident.

Managing Director of the company, Patrick Guest, was present at the court case.

A Mr Hart, representing the company, said there was a warning notice on one of the support posts, instructing staff that the top deck needed to be supported.

He said the company had a strong approach to health and safety, and that the incident was “not part of a systemic failure.” It was isolated to this decision to use these trailers at the Bradford depot.

He added: “The use of double decked trailers as a storage facility was unique to the Bradford depot.”

Speaking about the company he said: “Arnold Laver has a long history of investment in the local area. It employs 101 full time employees in Bradford, more than half of whom are from the local area.

“The company takes this matter very seriously. It is a very close knit workforce in Bradford and everyone was very upset Mr Thompson was hurt in this way.”

The court heard that the company, which is over 100 years old, had never been prosecuted before.

Arnold Laver had a turnover of £145 million in 2019, but Mr Hart said the profits were much lower than that, and the company had suffered from the economic downturn.

He said: “Any fine would have a huge impact in this particular economic climate.”

District Judge Richard Clews said: “To the lay man, the way this trailer was being used doesn’t look particularly safe.

“It was bought at auction in order to augment the storage space at the company’s premises in Bradford. None of the company’s other 17 depots have a similar arrangement.

“It is common sense that buying a trailer to use for storage in this way is a cheaper option to constructing a new building or large storage shed.”

He said that if the upper deck had been cleared of storage before work was done on the lower deck, the accident would have been avoided.

But Judge Clews said the fact that the company's use of the trailer as a cheaper option was not evidence of deliberate cost cutting at the expense of safety.

He told the company that they could have been fined as much as £300,000, but that was reduced due to their early guilty plea and mitigating factors mentioned by the defence.

They will also have to pay £1,719 costs.

The company asked for 12 months to pay the fine.