Company fined after employee dies from serious head injuries at work

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging companies to implement and maintain safe systems of work and to offer full training to staff to ensure that the health and safety of employees is not put at risk.

This follows the sentencing on Friday (25 September) of Delico Ltd at Aylesbury Crown Court. The company was prosecuted after a cleaner was fatally injured while cleaning a blending machine at its meat processing plant in Milton Keynes.

Delico Ltd based at Sutton Fields in Hull, was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,452. The company had pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at a hearing in Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court on 10 July 2009.

HSE investigated the incident at Delico’s meat processing plant in Snelshall West, Milton Keynes on 19 May 2007. An employee, Lynda Trebilcock, was cleaning one of the blending machines when a powered door on the machine closed unexpectedly and Mrs Trebilcock suffered severe head injuries. She died at the scene.

HSE Inspector Karl Howes said:

“Employers must ensure that they implement safe systems of work for staff using machinery. They must make certain that safety features on machines, such as guards are not overridden.”

“All areas of risk need to be assessed, including cleaning and maintenance tasks, to make sure that tragic incidents like this do not happen.”