Custodial sentence for quarry director
A QUARRY director has received a nine-month jail sentence for running a sand and gravel site in an unsafe manner and for failing to comply with two prohibition notices issued by the Health & Safety Executive.
The notices were served during ensuing visits to Wymondham Quarry, Norfolk, following an incident in June 2004 in which a quarry worker received serious chest and pelvic injuries.
On 18 November 2005, Norwich Crown Court heard how Mark Broadbent, a director of Earthstrip Plant Ltd, had: breached the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 on three separate occasions; contravened Regulation 8(1)(c) of the Quarries Regulations 1999 by failing to employ a competent person to run the quarry; and ignored two subsequent prohibition notices.
Judge Peter Jacobs sentenced Mr Broadbent to six months in jail for failing to comply with the HSE’s initial prohibition notice, together with a further nine-month sentence for failing to comply with the second notice, both terms to run concurrently. Mr Broadbent, who is appealing against the conviction, is expected to serve a minimum of four and a half months.
Commenting on the case in the January edition of Safety & Health Practitioner, HSE principal inspector Frank Sykes said a custodial sentence was appropriate in this instance as the case had involved serious, cynical and prolonged breaches of statutory legislation, and because the subsequent prohibition notices had been deliberately ignored.
