Court Summary - at a glance

Date of offence:
12 March 2020
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Final decision date:
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point set at $100,000, with a final fine of $65,000. However, the defendant was unable to pay.

Safety lessons learned:

It was reasonably practicable for Daniel Anderson to have:

  • Provided workers with appropriate personal protective equipment, including eye protection.
  • Required workers to wear eye protection when using a chisel and hammer or any other task where there is a risk of eye injury and to have effectively communicated this requirement to workers and monitored them to ensure it was complied with.

Defendant name:
Daniel Anderson
 
Industry:
Agriculture
 
Date of offence:
12 March 2020
 
Facts in brief:
The defendant is a sole trader running a fencing business.

The victim was chiselling out a fence post when a piece of metal flew up and entered his eye. The victim lost sight in the eye. He was not wearing any eye protection including safety glasses. He had not been provided with any training on the use of eye protection and there were no safety glasses available.

The defendant explained that he was not the workers’ mother and it was not up to him to tell workers what to wear. He said the use of PPE by workers was simply a matter of common sense for workers. The victim had just turned 17.
 
Offence section:
S36(1)(a) and s48(1) and (2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and s56(1) and 56(6)(a)
 
Date(s) charged:
14 September 2021

Court:
Kaikoura - District Court
 
Plea:
Guilty
 
Final decision date:
 
Decision:
Convicted
 
Fine imposed:
Starting point set at $100,000, with a final fine of $65,000. However, the defendant was unable to pay.
 
Maximum fine available:
Charge 1 - $10,000
Charge 2 - $300,000
 
Reparation:
Emotional harm - $60,000 would have been appropriate if defendant had been able to pay. Because of lack of insurance and inability to pay, defendant offered a global payment of $22,500 for emotional harm and consequential loss, which the judge ordered.
Consequential loss - $5,588.
Costs - none requested - no chance of this defendant being able to pay costs.
 
Related Documents:
PDF
Sentencing notes: WorkSafe New Zealand v Daniel Nicholas Anderson (PDF 1.2 MB)
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn
Subscribe