Firm fined £67k after apprentice suffered broken feet

Alison Fava

An apprentice who hadn’t been provided with training or the right equipment suffered broken feet when he undertook a wheel swap job.

His employer, Holt JCB of Bristol, has been fined £67,000 by Swansea Magistrates Court, plus £2,930 in costs, after the HSE prosecuted.

The HSE investigation found that Holt JCB, a construction vehicle dealer, did not have any handling equipment for wheels, had not assessed the operation and had not trained workers on how to handle wheels.

Broken bones

The apprentice had been tasked with removing and replacing wheels weighing more than 400kg from a JCB digger, when one fell onto his feet, leaving him with broken bones in both feet.

Holt JCB pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 (1) of the Manual Handling Regulations 1992.

HSE inspector Steve Richardson said: “This incident could have been prevented if the company had used a mechanical wheel handler costing less than £700. Measures such as this would have been apparent had the task been properly assessed.”

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