One of London’s oldest theatrical suppliers has been ordered to pay nearly £40,000 after a lorry driver was crushed under a tonne of artists’ canvasses.
Brodie and Middleton has been trading since 1840 and is a favourite of London theatre companies for costumes, make-up and drapes.
Westminster magistrates heard that the Estonian lorry driver was crushed under canvasses being unloaded by a Brodie and Middleton worker at its warehouse in Tottenham.
The court was told that the worker was using a forklift truck which was ill-equipped to handle the weight.
Driver Jaan Kramartsuk suffered fractures to both legs as well as nerve damage to his left arm, and was still badly injured more than a year later, the court heard.
The firm, based in Store Street, Bloomsbury, pleaded guilty to three health and safety breaches over the accident, in June 2014 at the warehouse in Garman Road.
Mr Kramartsuk blocked traffic with his lorry and a Brodie and Middleton staff member attempted to unload the consignment of Estonian stretched canvasses swiftly so traffic could get past again, the court heard.
“The load fell from the forklift truck, striking the driver, trapping his left arm, and the pallet was on both legs,” said prosecutor Jim Meyer.
Sentencing the company this week, Judge Purdy said: “It was a well-intentioned if seriously misguided attempt by a long-standing employee to try and assist unloading the lorry, which arrived without warning.
“He did so too quickly, without regard to the need to ensure it was done properly.”
He ordered Brodie and Middleton pay £2,000 compensation to the victim, a £30,000 fine for the health and safety breaches, and £7,292 court costs.
Julia Hendrick, representing the company, said it was the latest setback for bosses coping with the loss of a major Chinese contract and the rising cost of imported materials caused by the fall in sterling after the Brexit vote.
“This is a company which in the past made a modest profit, but now is in relative dire straits — the director is trying to keep it afloat,” she said.
“The director and senior managers care very much about their staff, they don’t want to lay them off if they don’t have to.
“There have been additional difficulties in recent times, the cost of the importation of various items is going up — a practical impact of the pound being weaker.”
Ms Hendrick said the firm had also been “forced to move premises when the previously advantageous rental agreement came to an end promptly, causing the loss of local custom”.
Although insurers will cover the court costs, the firm, which last year posted a profit of £10,000, was given up to five years by the judge to pay the fines.
MORE ABOUT