Farmer Fined after Builder’s Labourer Injured in Fall

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:14:46 +0000

Bruce Quarton, the owner of Moorhouse Farm in Hovingham, York, has been fined £6,000 and was ordered to pay costs of £1,530 at York Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Mr Quarton was prosecuted after a labourer was injured after falling from a building on Moorhouse Farm then had a no win no fee claim.

On the 28th October 2009, the worker, who has asked not to be named, was assisting a builder with a project on the farm when the incident occurred. Mr Quarton had hired the builder to convert an old farm building into a new cattle shed. In order to carry out the work, the builder was required to improve ventilation in the building by removing alternate ridge tiles from its roof.

Unfortunately, the building was equipped with no edge protection and Mr Quarton failed to supply any equipment or materials necessary to prevent workers from falling off or through the building. Crawling boards, for example, ought to have been used to spread the weight of any person working atop the roof.

Whilst working on top of the building, the unnamed labourer walked onto an unprotected roof light, which collapsed beneath his weight. Falling three metres to the concrete floor beneath, the worker sustained multiple serious injuries, including fractures to his skull, collarbone and right wrist. The worker also broke six ribs and ruptured his spleen.

Personal injury claims involving incidents in the agriculture industry are common in the UK, with most such accident claims brought after workers have suffered falls from height. Although Mr Quarton may have expected the builder in question to carry out his work safely, he was also required by the law to ensure that the work was carried out safely.

After the court hearing, David Green, a principal inspector for the Health and Safety Executive, said: “This work was poorly planned and executed from start to finish, with the end result being a horrific fall that could easily have killed the labourer”.

Mr Green added: “In agriculture, roughly half of deaths and medical negligence are as a result of falls involving work on fragile roofs. HSE offers ample free guidance on working at height online and through local Safety and Health Awareness Days, as it does on the safe use of farm machinery. Using a tractor and bucket as an impromptu lift is totally unacceptable. I hope today’s prosecution serves as a further reminder that farm machinery should only be used for its intended purpose and that work at height needs to be properly planned”.

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Fraudulent insurance claims are costing us all

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:21:07 +0000

Insurers have claimed that approximately £5.2million of fraudulent claims go undetected every day. This is a shockingly high 24% increase compared with research carried out two years ago.

Insurance fraud has soared to an estimated £1.9billion a year in the UK, causing a knock-on effect in the form of rises in insurance premiums. This year alone the average car insurance premium jumped to above £1,000 for the first time in Great Britain, which is a 19% increase on what the average motorist was paying a year ago to insure their cars. The rise in premiums is costing the average household £44 a year in higher premiums.

Latest research suggests that it is the genuine insurance customers that are suffering from the sharply rising premiums because of the quantity of fraudulent claims being made. Part of the problem has been an accusation of the increasing amount of personal injury lawyers that could be encouraging claimants to exaggerate or lie about the extent of their injuries.

A survey carried out among lawyers has indicated that 57% had noticed an increase in the number of exaggerated claims or invented injuries from claimants in a bid to make money from their insurance companies in the past 10 years.

Law firms specialising in the investigation and handling of suspected fraudulent personal injury claims have commented that the research supports the experience within their fraud units. They worry that some types of insurance fraud are now reaching epidemic proportions. They believe it to be an ‘indirect tax on the public, levied by dishonest people’ which is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

AA research has highlighted that despite Britain having a lower accident rate than most of Europe, it had the highest rate of people making personal injury claims. Whiplash injuries in particular are being exaggerated in order to receive as much money as possible from the insurance company. The AA has calculated that £66 of every customer’s annual premium is made up of funding personal injury claims.

Action is underway to prevent fraudsters and protect genuine insurance claims. Nick Starling, the Association of British Insurers director of general insurance and health, said: “There is no hiding place for insurance cheats. Honest customers should not have to pay for the fraudsters. Closer scrutiny of proposal forms and claims, as well the exchange of information through industry-wide databases, is tightening the net on the cheats.”

However, further research carried out by the ABI revealed that 16% of people would not rule out making an exaggerated insurance claim.
“The rise in fraudulent claims in the UK is shocking” commented Paul Breen of specialist injury solicitors Serious Law. ”Honesty is the only policy when making a claim. Lying will only put your cover in jeopardy, and affects the people out there who genuinely need to make a claim, particularly those who have received serious injuries. They rely on their claims going through quickly and effectively. Fraudulent claims only serve to delay the process by clogging up the courts. It is a situation that we need to get to grips with as quickly as possible if genuine victims are to get the treatment and the compensation they really deserve,” he concludes.

Source: Serious Law, http://www.seriousinjurylaw.co.uk

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Consumer News » Personal Injury Claims

Farmer Fined after Builder’s Labourer Injured in Fall

Fraudulent insurance claims are costing us all