Untrained forklift truck drivers results in (suspended) prison sentence for director

BB Recycling, a Corby recycling firm have been fined £640 (inc. costs) and its director given a suspended jail sentence for endangering workers after allowing them to operate fork lift trucks without proper training and then ignoring a notice requiring urgent action to address the safety failing.

The circumstances were:

• The HSE had served an Improvement Notice against BB Recycling on 29 November 2011.
• This required them to ensure that people who used forklift trucks were trained.
• This was continually overlooked even after a deadline to comply was extended until 28 February 2012.
• The company and director Russell Wayne Armer were also found to have no employer’s liability insurance.

The company was fined and Mr Armer given a fourth month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The court have also applied to disqualify Mr Armer from acting as a company director, managing or in any way controlling a company for at least five years.

The HSE Inspector said:

“Employees were placed in unnecessary danger, but thankfully the situation was resolved before any one was injured. The requirement to train fork lift operators is long established across all industries so there is no excuse for this company and its director to blatantly ignore what was required as well as a notice that explicitly called for remedial action. Possessing valid employers’ liability insurance, meanwhile, is mandatory for all businesses. So I doubt that many employers will have much sympathy for a firm that was operating without this.”