A BATHROOM company has been fined £40,000 after a three-tonne piece of equipment was blown onto an employee, causing serious injuries.

Harrison Bathrooms was sentenced at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court for health and safety failings.

The business – which has a warehouse in Deal Street, Keighley – was told it could have been fined £100,000, but an early guilty plea and an otherwise unblemished health and safety record led to the fine being reduced.

The incident happened on January 15, 2019.

An employee, Joshua Degler, was injured when a large retractable tent used to keep goods in a storage yard dry was blown over by a gust of wind.

He was pinned between the structure and the concrete floor, and suffered injuries to his head and torso. A forklift truck was needed to lift the structure off him, and he was flown to hospital by air ambulance.

Bradford Council brought the case. Sarah Barlow, prosecuting, told the court that the company had no written instructions for employees on how to use the retractable tent, and no evidence of a risk assessment on the equipment.

She said Mr Degler had not co-operated with the court case, and so the court had to assume he had made a full recovery.

He had already been compensated by the company through a civil case.

A representative for the firm said: “This is a local company that has done its damnedest appropriately in regard to health and safety, but accepts that it made a mistake.

“It apologises for the pain and suffering caused.”

He said the accident had a major impact on the company, and that its managing director had felt personally responsible.

He told the court that the incident was a one-off for a firm that took health and safety very seriously, and there had been no similar incidents since.

Only a handful of the company’s 100 employees would have ever accessed the equipment.

District Judge Richard Clews said that for a company that size, the starting point for a fine would normally be £100,000. But he said the firm had pleaded guilty and co-operated with the investigation from the start, adding: “Other than this it has a good record of safety and care of its employees, and after the incident took more than sufficient steps to right the wrong.”

The company was also ordered to pay £5,421 costs and a £170 surcharge.