We are the preferred Health & Safety Consultants for small garages

Its always great to get a call out of the blue on a Monday morning from a garage requesting our services. After spending a couple of hours on site I could only find 5 minor non conformance’s. Keep up the good work Kerry and the team at Haywards Heath Auto Centre.

It was great to go and see Tom & Kerry Taylor at their Garage & MOT Centre in Wimborne. Every customer that came on site said they had been recommended and that shows the passion of a great team.

Really happy to be working alongside the incredibly busy & popular AMT Motor Services in Plymouth. I have to say that these guys are probably the nicest people in the motor trade and its great that more and more smaller garages like these are now embracing health and safety.

A telecommunication inspection and maintenance company has been fined after a forklift truck overturned during an unsafe lifting operation which could have exposed several workers to the risk of death or serious personal injury.

On 3 May 2019, Southend Magistrates’ Court heard that on 11 February 2017, two forklifts on Springwood Industrial Estate were being used to level a support column by repeatedly pushing it with one truck and then “catching” it with the other . This operation was high risk and one worker was left to carry out this unsafe work practice on his own.

As a result, the column rolled on its base and fell- pulling over the forklift truck it was attached to. The operator escaped injury as he was operating the other forklift truck at the time. The company then went on to use two forklift trucks to try to right the overturned truck which was also unsafe and put workers at risk.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Swann I&M Services Limited did not properly plan and supervise this lifting operation to ensure it was carried out in a safe manner.

Swann I&M Services Limited of Tonbridge, Kent pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 and has been fined £54,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,442.80.

Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Tim Underwood said “The use of forklift trucks was both impractical and unsafe, putting workers at unnecessary risk. This incident could so easily have been avoided by simply having a competent person plan a safe lifting operation and providing adequate supervision to ensure the lifting operation was carried out safely. Companies should be aware that HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards.”

Further information on the best way to do thing right then contact us today

A mechanic who fixed cars on the pavement near his home has been ordered to pay thousands in costs.

Ronny Mir, 48, of Parlaunt Road, left cars in various states of disrepair on the pavement as he fixed and serviced the vehicles for paying customers.

The ground became stained by the oil he poured into surface water drains and various car parts and debris were strewn across the walkway.

He did not attend his trial at Reading Magistrates’ Court but was found guilty of breaching the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 in his absence and ordered to pay a £450 fine, £1980 in costs and a victim surcharge of £30.

Abuse

Neighbourhood teams who went to record the offences in June last year were verbally abused by Mir.

In one verbal attack, Mir threatened to maim and blind the officers who were investigating him.

Liz Jones, neighbourhood manager, said: “The case against Mr Mir was that he was carrying out car repairs on the highway and this resulted in many complaints from neighbours about car parts being left strewn across the highway, car oil on the footpaths and being poured into the surface water drain and cars in various states of repair being left along the road.

“The east team had been working on collecting evidence and taking enforcement action since 2017 when he was witnessed committing the same offence of working on cars on the highway causing a nuisance and relation to business being operated from Parlaunt Road.

Continued to offend

“As a result, Mr Mir was issued with a fixed penalty which he failed to pay, he was also invited into the council offices for a formal interview where he would have had the opportunity to advise the investigating officer of any mitigating circumstances.

“Mr Mir did not attend the interview and did not make attempts to re-arrange.

“Therefore when Mr Mir resumed the same pattern of working in the same location in 2018 the decision was made to prosecute him.

“Over this period, Mr Mir was becoming increasingly threatening towards officers culminating in him making threats to maim and blind the officers who were taking photos of the cars.”

The number of MoT testers who have been struck off in the UK has rocketed over the past few years, with 82 per cent more testers banned in the 2017/18 financial year compared with 2015/16.

Worse still, experts say dodgy testers could be issuing fake MoTs to written-off cars that should be scrapped.

Some 178 nominated MoT testers previously authorised by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) were struck off in 2017/18, up from 98 in 2015/16. And 41 per cent more authorised examiners, who oversee testing stations, had their status withdrawn over the same period. Testers can be warned or banned for issuing fraudulent certificates, as well as improper or careless testing.

There are more than 23,000 MoT test stations in the UK, which makes those numbers look slim, but one corrupt tester was recently prosecuted for issuing 310 fake MoTs over 18 months, so discredited testers could have been responsible for tens of thousands of illegitimate MoTs – putting the safety of countless road users at risk.

AA president Edmund King said: “While most MoT inspectors do a great job, the rise in inspectors being struck off is worrying.”

King highlighted the essential role the MoT test plays in vehicle safety, and said that cars should never pass an MoT because they have been “fraudulently ticked through as a favour for a friend”.

He added: “The wider concern is that written-off vehicles could have entered into the second-hand car market, when all they were really good for was scrap.”

Jim Punter, editor of MoT Testing magazine, believes the number of improper testers caught by the DVSA is related to how much the agency spends on enforcement. He said: “The DVSA’s own analysis shows the average quality of MoT inspections isn’t as good as it could be. But the number of testers and testing stations taken out of the MoT scheme each year isn’t a reliable measure of the quality of MoT testing. It’s more to do with the amount of money DVSA spends rooting out bad testing, and encouraging honest testers and testing stations to do better.”

Neil Barlow, the DVSA’s head of vehicle engineering, said: “Using intelligence and enforcement, we are taking action against testers who put people’s lives at risk.”

Case study

David Matthew Barrington from Ottery St Mary, Devon, received a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, last month for issuing 310 MoT pass certificates to vehicles he had never even inspected. Barrington, who acted behind the backs of his bosses, was also given a six-month electronic curfew order. Barrington pleaded guilty to issuing 50 fake MoT certificates, with a further 260 taken into consideration by the court.

The DVSA said it would contact the owners of the vehicles in question, and would also open a proceeds-of-crime investigation to determine if any money earned by Barrington from the dodgy MoT tests could be recouped.

For more information on Truck Health & Safety contact us today

Being an Automotive Health and Safety expert covering a vast amount of different franchises I have always gravitated towards Mercedes Benz as my preferred choice of cars.

In recent years I have purchased 12 Mercedes for both myself and my wife from the same Dealership at the brilliant Sandown Mercedes in Salisbury.

Just when I thought you couldn’t get enough of a good thing, I was delighted when one of the largest independent Mercedes Truck Dealers, Rygor Commercials asked us to help with their 11 amazing retail sites.

It looks like I have gone from being a massive petrol head to a massive diesel head.

If you work within any of the Mercedes franchises and would like expert Health & Safety advice then contact us today.

They have come from Germany ealier than expected due to our exit from the EU on 29th March.
The reason for their early arrival is to avoid the possibilty of incorrect paywork and tarrif charges after Brexit.
We have to make sure the huge site & workshop at Purfleet Commercials Maidstone (PCL ltd) is safe at this incredibly busy time as they are geared up to udrtake the 164 PDI’s ahead of them. Yes you read that correctly, 164 PDI’s in just 2 months.

Great to be working with the PCL team.

A great bunch of lads at all the sites.