princess yachts hse

Luxury yachts firm fined £600k after worker injury

P lymouth-based boatbuilder Princess Yachts has been fined £600,000 plus costs for a health and safety breach which left one of its workers with life-changing injuries.

Mark Gillen, 54, was crushed by a staging platform weighing about a tonne which was being moved between the company’s Southyard and Newport Street sites on 9 November 2021.

Plymouth Magistrates Court heard three members of staff were pushing the staging by hand instead of using a fork-lift truck because one was not available.

The incident happened less than a month after Princess Yachts was fined £200,000 for an injury to another worker in 2018.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the platform, used to work on boats at height, fell due to one of the front wheels hitting a divot in a concrete surface.

It took eight to 10 people to lift the staging off Mr Gillen and he was in intensive care for two weeks.

He suffered 12 broken ribs, a bleed on the brain and irreparable nerve damage.

There is still a risk of amputation to his arm and he cannot return to manual work.

The court heard there was no assessment was done for moving staging, and nothing was written down.

The HSE said manual movement of the staging should have been prohibited.

In sentencing, the court heard Princess Yachts was in the worst financial position it had ever been.

District Judge Jo Matson fined the firm £600,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £9,146.

Mr Gillen's wife Sarah Gillen said after the case: “Our worlds were turned upside down the day Mark had the catastrophic crush accident, leaving him with life-changing injuries."

Ms Gillen said before the incident Mark had been a fit, healthy strong and determined man.

"Now though, he is in constant chronic nerve pain which affects his ability to participate in the things he once loved," she said.

HSE inspector Paul Mannell said after the case that Mr Gillen was "lucky to be alive".

"The company should have had measures in place to ensure that mobile staging was never pushed through the yard by hand," he said.

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