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Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
5 February 2020
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point of $750,000 plus 9% uplift, fine end point of $502,500 following discounts: 25% guilty plea, 5% co-operation, 5% remorse, 5% reparation, 2% remedial steps taken - total 42%

Safety lessons learned:

Being a PCBU having a duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, including the victim, while the workers were at work in the business or undertaking, namely operating the North Blast Freezer, did fail to comply with that duty, and that failure exposed the workers to risk of death or serious injury arsing from the uncontrolled descent of a steel frame at the back end of the North Blast Freezer.

It was reasonably practicable for the defendant to have:

  1. Ensured a suspended crate could not drop from the back of the North Blast Freezer
  2. Prevented relevant workers from entering the area where a suspended crate could drop from the back of the North Blast Freezer
  3. Educated relevant workers about the risk of a suspended crate dropping
  4. Identified the risk of a suspended crate dropping on a worker and taken one or more of the preventative steps at particulars (a) to (c).   

Defendant name:
Affco New Zealand Limited
 
Industry:
Manufacturing
 
Date of offence:
5 February 2020
 
Facts in brief:
The victim sustained fatal crush injuries after he was crushed beneath a steel frame/crate used to transport cartons of meat products in the North Blast freezer.
 
Offence section:
Sections 36(1)(a) and 48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
 
Date(s) charged:
29 January 2021

Court:
Gisborne - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point of $750,000 plus 9% uplift, fine end point of $502,500 following discounts: 25% guilty plea, 5% co-operation, 5% remorse, 5% reparation, 2% remedial steps taken - total 42%
 
Maximum fine available:
$1.5 million
 
Reparation:
Emotional harm - None ordered. $139,171 paid in advance of sentencing
Consequential loss - None ordered. $84,471 paid in advance of sentencing
Costs - $5346.55