A Staffordshire manufacturing company has been fined £300,000 after a worker was left with life-changing injuries and facial scarring.

Following the incident on 24 March 2025, Gary Taylor, who was 63 at the time, spent three weeks in hospital and needed seven months off work.

Mr Taylor had been working for E H Hassell & Sons Limited at its site on Newstead Ind Estate in Trentham.

The grandfather was one of several workers involved in the unloading of a lorry trailer containing various steel components for a large filtration system.

The workers had improvised a system to unload the metal hopper with a forklift truck, placing the forks underneath the unsecured load to lift it from the trailer bed.

As the metal hopper slid from the forks, it struck Mr Taylor in the head as he was standing alongside it.

His injuries included fractures to his skull, neck and spine, two broken ribs and a severe laceration to his forehead which required 17 staples and 14 stitches.

Mr Taylor said: "During my time off recuperating from my injuries, the seven months I was off work, I had no interest in anything

"I know my wife thinks that I won't be around with her in my eighties, she has constant worry that something is going to happen to me.

"She never thought like that before my accident."

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the lifting operation had not been properly planned by a competent person.

The characteristics of the load, including its weight, size, centre of gravity and lifting points, had not been adequately assessed, and no safe system of work had been put in place.

Moving an object of this size and weight was not a regular task at the site and there was no established system of work for it.

According to HSE guidelines, it is important to properly resource, plan and organise lifting operations so they are carried out safely.

E H Hassell & Sons Limited of Alderflat Drive, Trentham, Staffordshire pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 and were fined £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,690 at a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 23 October 2026.

Mr Taylor added: "For me, I have no idea what the future holds.

"I can only hope that I will get better as time goes on and I become more like the old man I used to be – a supportive husband, father and grandfather to my grandchildren.

"I want to be a person that hopefully will become more of a person than a shadow of my former self."

HSE inspector Claire Whitehurst said: "The failures here resulted in an experienced worker suffering life-changing injuries.

"The company failed to properly plan the lifting operation or implement a safe system of work.

"Mr Taylor suffered serious injuries which could easily have resulted in his death.

"He has been left with facial scarring, and both he and his family have been deeply affected by this traumatic experience.

"Employers must ensure that lifting operations are properly planned by a competent person and carried out safely.

"This is especially important for non-routine tasks involving heavy or awkward loads."