Daisy Ning Bai, Director of BW Recycling Limited, has been sentenced to 160 hours of unpaid work and a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. She was also ordered to pay costs of £5,843.
The incident that led to the sentence resulted in 20 year-old Nathan Bland having the lower part of his left leg amputated instantly after his legs were crushed inside a waste baler. He also lost some toes from his right foot.
Mr Bland issued a personal statement about the incident, stating that returning to work is difficult due to the prosthetic leg he now has to wear. In addition he suffers from depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to the incident.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that Daisy Ning Bai introduced a working platform in front of the baler in order to make it easier to fill the hopper. The platform allowed easy access to the baling chamber, including dangerous moving parts within it.
HSE inspector Sarah Lee said "A young man has had his life changed forever as a result of this incident. Companies and individuals that use balers should not install working platforms or other devices in front of the hoppers on balers as it permits access to dangerous moving parts of the baler".
"This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply carrying out correct control measures and safe working practices".
