Guilty pleas submitted following life-changing accident in King's Lynn
Pet centre and fork-lift driver admit to charges.
Dickies Pet Centre Limited and Mr Richard Ellwood have pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 following a serious accident at the centre.
The charges were brought by the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk after a lorry driver was left with life-changing injuries in 2018.
On the 25th June 2018 at the Dickies Pet Centre's Oldmedow Road site, a palleted load of pet bedding was being delivered.
It was unloaded from a delivery lorry by fork-lift driver Mr Richard Ellwood, the managing director of the centre.
The fork-lift truck lifted the load with its lifting forks too close together which meant the load wasn't properly supported when it was lifted.
This meant that when the load was manoeuvered the bedding, which weighed more than 800kg and was more than 2.5m tall, fell from the pallet onto the delivery driver.
He sustained life-changing injuries including fractures to his neck.
It has left him tetraplegic and put him in need of 24-hour care permanently.
The case found Dickies Pet Centre did not have a safe system of work for the unloading of delivery vehicles and Mr Ellwood had not been trained in the operation of fork-lift trucks since 2005.
The fork-lift had also long been operated without access to any copy of the manufacturer's manual.
Dickies Pet Centre Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to fulfill its duty to ensure those it did not employ were not exposed to risk by the way it ran its business.
Mr Richard Ellwood admitted to being a director who consented or connived in the company's office, or to whose neglect that offending was attributable.
Vicki Hopps, the borough council's Environmental Health Manager, said, "Deliveries of substantial goods between businesses involve a number of well-known safety risks, especially where fork-lift trucks are used to handle the goods.
"Those who operate businesses must ensure they assess the risks involved for their particular situation and put in place appropriate arrangements to reduce those risks to as low as reasonably practicable.
"Advice on safe handling of goods is widely available, including on the HSE website.
"That advice includes references to the importance of those in control of moving goods ensuring that other people are safely out of the way before going ahead with moving them.
"Businesses using specialist equipment to handle goods, such as fork-lift trucks, should always ensure they also observe safety warnings in manufacturer's manuals and keep staff properly refresher-trained.
"This incident shows the potentially devastating consequences for anyone caught up in the mishandling of delivered goods, and, as these proceedings show, failing to reach the minimum safety standards set by law may lead to serious consequences for the businesses responsible and for those individuals running those businesses".
Cllr Stuart Dark, MBE, Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Public Protection, said: "There is no success in the aftermath of a serious accident like this and its life-changing impact on the individual and their family.
"What we hope is that others will learn from this incident and take their responsibilities around health and safety seriously.
"Where this does not happen, we will take action, to the full extent of the law, to give the victim justice and to ensure lessons are learned and safeguards put in place for the protection of other workers.
"I pay tribute to the meticulous work of our council officers in this particular investigation and the work of the Environmental Health Team as a whole."
The case has been adjourned for sentencing at a later date.