Shropshire feed supplier fined £10,000 over fork lift truck
A Shropshire animal feed supplier has been ordered to pay more than £10,000 for safety failings relating to a fork lift truck.
Gardners Limited, of Baveney Farm in Baveney Wood, near Cleobury Mortimer, admitted it had failed to ensure that its fork lift truck received its regular annual examination.
The company was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay £1,150 in costs after pleading guilty to the offence at Telford Magistrates Court.
The company was taken to court by the Health and Safety Executive under the Lifting Operation and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.
Mary Prior, who owns Gardners Ltd, said the fork lift truck had not received its annual check-over even though it had been booked in for it.
After the hearing she said: "For 15 years I have had the same company come and perform the servicing of the fork lift truck.
"But this year their engineer had left, they were training up new staff and therefore were unable to come out to do the service and examination I had booked.
"The company usually turn up and just do the service. This year they didn't inform me they wouldn't be coming out and it must have slipped my mind.
"It was a genuine error and while I admit I made a mistake, I do feel a bit hard-done by – the size of the fine is a lot of money for a small company like ours."
