Cambridgeshire business fined £133,000 after worker suffered punctured lung and liver damage in fall
A Cambridgeshire logistics business has been fined £133,000 after an employee suffered multiple injuries after falling from a sugar beet conveyor.
The employee was loading sugar beet for transport using a conveyor at Knowles Logistics Limited, based in Wimblington, on 28 November 2023, when the system became blocked with waste product.
They fell after climbing the side of the conveyor to clear the blockage, suffering multiple injuries including several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and liver damage.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the conveyor system became blocked multiple times during a shift. Often these blockages could only be cleared by climbing up the side of the machine and removing the obstruction by hand. There was no safe system of work in place for clearing blockages.
HSE guidance states that work at height must be properly planned, appropriately supervised, and carried out safely by competent people. Work at height includes any place where, without precautions, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury.
Knowles Logistics Limited, of Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £133,000 and ordered to pay £5,438 in costs at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 24 October 2025.
Following the hearing, HSE Inspector Natalie Prince said: “Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries. This was a wholly avoidable incident that led to a worker being seriously injured.”