Hemel Food Centre has been fined £30,000 after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety laws.
Migagold Ltd trading as Hemel Food Centre, based in the Marlowes, pleaded guilty to breaching its duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Luton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, October 6 following inspections by our Environmental Health Officers.
In November 2018, officers served a prohibition notice on a meat cutting bandsaw that did not have an interlocking guard to protect staff from accessing moving parts of equipment which included rotating pulleys and the bandsaw blade.
Officers placed tape around the bandsaw to prevent use and served a prohibition notice.
The court heard how the business had deliberately removed the tape and there had been a ‘flagrant disregard’ of the prohibition notice.
The Court fined the business a total of £30,000 for the two offences: providing unsafe equipment and breaching a prohibition notice.
The court took into account an early guilty plea and no previous convictions of the business which had been incorporated in 2017.
Councillor Julie Banks, portfolio holder for community and regulatory services, said: “Health and safety is essential in the workplace and we will take action where it is not being followed. This case sends out an important message, highlighting the need for businesses to comply with health and safety laws and to take all appropriate measures in their business.”
The council’s Environmental Health team is employed to investigate non-compliance in the workplace and ensure that businesses in Dacorum comply with health and safety law.
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