Waste-transfer company director sentenced

Six-month suspended sentence for company director after repeated serious safety failings

THE director of a waste-transfer company has been found guilty and banned from being a company director after knowingly exposing employees to serious unsafe working conditions.

Preston Crown Court heard that, in November 2018, despite a conviction for transport-related health and safety offences following a fatal incident in 2013, and further enforcement action in 2017 for using a poorly maintained and damaged telehandler, Zarif Mohammed allowed the continued use of the same seriously damaged machine on the waste-transfer site in Kensulate Park, Blackburn.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the telehandler was being used without working reversing lights, a camera or mirrors, which presented a serious risk of people being struck and seriously injured as the driver would not be able to see adequately when reversing the vehicle.

Mr Mohammed pleaded guilty under Section 37 to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, plus 190 hours of unpaid work with a further six rehabilitation days. He was also struck off from working as a company director for five years.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Steven Boyd said: ‘Mr Mohammed had been previously convicted by HSE following a fatality at a previous company of which he was a director and then was served additional enforcement by HSE on a visit to a new company of which he was a director.

‘Despite this, Mr Mohammed allowed serious unsafe conditions to prevail, presenting a high risk of persons being killed or seriously injured. Workplace transport incidents remain a major cause of fatal and serious injuries in the waste and recycling industry. It is important that vehicles are maintained in a safe condition.’