Lives of hundreds of workers left at risk at Herefordshire's S&A Produce (From Hereford Times)

Lives of hundreds of workers left at risk at Herefordshire's S&A Produce

8:00am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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FAULTY gas fittings put the lives of more than 700 migrant workers in serious danger at a major commercial farming operation.

Hereford magistrates heard how S&A Produce was charged nearly £45,000 over three years for gas work done at its Brierley Court site near Leominster by a contractor who was not up to the job and who falsified his own safety inspection records.

In court, self-employed Jaime Loxston heard his work on Brierley’s caravan accommodation described as so bad it posed a real threat of fire, explosion or carbon monoxide poisoning.

S&A had to shut the site until all the caravans – then home to 764 workers – could be declared safe.

Loxston, aged 31, of The Post Office, Norton Canon, admitted two gas-related health and safety charges and was ordered to pay nearly £2,000 in fines and costs.

Passing sentence, the bench told Loxston that, under new laws, he could have been jailed.

For full story see this week's Hereford Times.