Dacorum Borough Council
A supermarket in Hertfordshire has been prosecuted by Dacorum Borough Council for providing unsafe equipment and breaching a prohibition notice.
In November 2018, environmental health officers served a prohibition notice on a meat-cutting bandsaw that did not have an interlocking guard to protect staff from accessing moving parts of equipment, which included rotating pulleys and the bandsaw blade.
Officers placed tape around the bandsaw to prevent use (pictured above) and served the notice.
However, Luton Magistrates' Court was told staff deliberately removed the tape, which showed a 'flagrant disregard' of the prohibition notice.
Earlier this week, Migagold, trading as Hemel Food Centre, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(2)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which relates to the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health; and section 33(1)(e) of the Act for breaching the prohibition notice.
Taking into account its early guilty plea, the court fined the firm £30,000 for the two offences.