Staffordshire manufacturer fined £300,000 after one-tonne hopper fell from forklift

E H Hassell & Sons Limited has been fined £300,000 after a one-tonne metal hopper slid from the forks of a forklift truck at its Trentham site and struck a worker on the head, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said.

The Staffordshire company pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 23 October 2026 to breaching Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). It was also ordered to pay costs of £5,690.

The injured worker, Gary Taylor, was 63 at the time of the incident on 24 March 2025. According to HSE, he spent three weeks in hospital and needed seven months off work.

HSE inspector Claire Whitehurst said: "Employers must ensure that lifting operations are properly planned by a competent person and carried out safely. This is especially important for non-routine tasks involving heavy or awkward loads."

The incident

HSE said Mr Taylor was one of several workers unloading a lorry trailer carrying steel components for a large filtration system at the company's site on Newstead Industrial Estate in Trentham.

The workers had improvised a method of lifting the metal hopper from the trailer bed, placing the forks of a forklift truck under the unsecured load. As the hopper slid from the forks it struck Mr Taylor on the head while he stood alongside it, HSE said.

His injuries included fractures to his skull, neck and spine, two broken ribs and a severe laceration to his forehead that needed 17 staples and 14 stitches. Ms Whitehurst said the injuries could easily have resulted in his death and that he has been left with facial scarring.

Mr Taylor said: "I want to be a person that hopefully will become more of a person than a shadow of my former self."

What HSE found

HSE's investigation found that the lifting operation had not been properly planned by a competent person. The characteristics of the load, including its weight, size, centre of gravity and lifting points, had not been adequately assessed, and no safe system of work had been put in place.

Moving an object of that size and weight was not a regular task at the site, HSE said, and there was no established system of work for it.

The regulator said the company failed to properly plan the lifting operation or implement a safe system of work.

The legal duty

Regulation 8(1) of LOLER requires every employer to ensure that every lifting operation involving lifting equipment is properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner. Regulation 8(2) defines a lifting operation as one concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load.

HSE's guidance on planning and organising lifting operations says the plan for any lifting operation must address the foreseeable risks involved in the work. For straightforward, common lifts, the guidance says a single initial generic plan may be all that is required. For complex operations, a written plan should be developed by a person with significant and specific competencies.

In its press release, HSE pointed to that guidance, which it said states that it is important to properly resource, plan and organise lifting operations so they are carried out in a safe manner.

The company

Companies House records the business as E.H. Hassell & Sons Limited, company number 01192025, with its registered office on Newstead Industrial Estate, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent. Its listed nature of business includes machining and other specialised construction activities not elsewhere classified.

HSE's press release gives the defendant's address as Alderflat Drive, Trentham, Staffordshire.

Sentencing and context

HSE said it does not pass sentences, set guidelines or collect fines. Courts must follow the relevant sentencing guidelines unless satisfied that doing so would be contrary to the interests of justice. The Sentencing Council's guideline for health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences came into force on 1 February 2016.

The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Julian White, supported by paralegal officer Stephen Grabe. The investigation was supported by visiting officer Natalka Heath.

HSE's latest published statistics record 59,219 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR, and 680,000 working people sustaining an injury at work according to the Labour Force Survey. The regulator's statistics overview records 126 workers killed in work-related accidents in 2025/26.