Bernard Matthews Food Ltd. has been fined £400,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 following two separate incidents where employees were seriously injured.
In the first instance, one worker, 58-year-old Colin Frewin, was left permanently paralysed after an incident at the company’s Suffolk manufacturing plant.
In January 2020, Frewin was tasked with cleaning a large screw conveyor used to move poultry turkeys along and chill them. While working on the gantry between the spin chillers he noticed a turkey stuck at the bottom of it.
After he attempted to dislodge the turkey using a squeegee, he was drawn into the machine. Only when a colleague noticed he was missing from the gantry and heard his cried for help was the emergency stop pulled.
As a result, Frewin suffered multiple serious injuries, including a pierced left lung, several broken ribs, four fractured vertebrae and a spinal bleed. He was put in an induced coma for three weeks and is now classed as a T6 paraplegic and has been diagnosed with autonomic dysreflexia (AD).
Frewin will never walk again, has a suprapubic catheter and is visited daily for bowel care.
In his personal statement, Frewin said the injuries have left him feeling “isolated”.
“I feel isolated as I cannot go out when I want as I need people to assist me,” he said.
“I can’t socialise with my friends and family as much as I used to, as I can’t fit my wheelchair into their homes.
“The accident has affected my life and my family’s lives.”
Five months earlier
The second incident took place five months earlier, in August 2019. As a result of a turkey deboning line being shut down due to a fault, 34-year-old Adriano Gama, along with other employees, was moved to a surplus production line to continue the process.
While working on the line, one of the wings became stuck in the belt under the machine. Gama attempted to push it out of the way but as he did, his gloved hand became caught in the exposed sprocket of the conveyer and was drawn into the machine.
Eventually he was freed, having suffered a broken arm and severe damage to the muscles in his forearm.
A HSE investigation found that on the day of the incident, pre-start checks were only completed on the production lines that were regularly used.
The investigation also uncovered that two safety guards had been removed and a team leader responsible for the production lines had verbally reported this issue to the engineering team, but it was not followed up on by either party.
The HSE concluded that both of these accidents could have been avoided.
“If Bernard Matthews had acted to identify and manage the risks involved and put a safe system of work in place they could have easily been prevented,” said HSE principal inspector, Adam Hills.
Bernard Matthews pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, in both cases, at Chelmsford Crown Court.
