A partner in a Leicester food company has been fined after an employee fell around two metres while unloading a shipping container attached to the back of an HGV.
Jaisukh Chandarana asked an 18-year-old worker to unload barrels, stored in layers with plywood separating each layer, from the container at Simtom Food Products factory in Merry Lees.
The teenage worker, who has asked not to be identified, was lifted on a pallet on a fork lift truck to climb onto a stack of pallets near the container doors. From there he entered the container and dragged the barrels onto the pallet held at height by the fork lift.
Leicester Magistrates' Court was told that while stepping from one pallet to another, the man fell around two metres, resulting in severe bruising to his abdomen and sprains to his shoulder and wrist. As a result he was off work for a several weeks.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Mr Chandarana for the 4 January 2011 incident.
Mr Chandarana, 57, of Hastings Road, Kirby Muxloe, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £7,500 with costs of £1,380.