Heating firm fined after worker injured by crane

Nomoco Ltd was given the fine at York Crown Court on Thursday

A heating contractor has been fined £2,000 after a man was injured while carrying out work for a firm which has since been liquidated.

Nomoco Ltd, which trades as Warmco Space Heating and is based in Tockwith, near Harrogate, appeared at York Crown Court to be sentenced for a health and safety offence on Thursday.

The incident happened in 2018 when the company was hired by construction firm Ilke Homes to install flues at its manufacturing site in Flaxby, near Knaresborough.

Contractor Ben Fisher was hurt when a crane transporting floor cassettes across the factory collided with the mobile elevated platform he was working on.

The court head that Mr Fisher was working with another colleague from Nomoco called Damon Harper when the incident occurred.

Simon Clegg, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said: “As Mr Fisher looked up he did not see the crane coming towards him.

"It was only due to his quick thinking and agility that he was able to avoid falling to the floor.

“He then was able to clamber up on the walkway so he could be lifted down and only suffered minor injuries.”

He added there had been a “high likelihood of a collision”.

When putting forward a suggestion for a financial penalty, he noted the company’s turnover in 2023 had been £764,000.

Meanwhile, Nomoco's defence counsel said the two men began the work as “they had been assured there would be no crane there”.

“Ilke had ordered all staff to wear ear defenders, so they could not alert them about what was going to happen,” she added.

She went on to tell Judge Sean Morris that for a “relatively small operation, Nomoco has high safety training and investment in its employees to ensure the highest standards are in place”.

Back in January, the company’s director Richard Howard pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that his employees were supervised in a safe manner while working at a height on a mobile elevated platform.

Warmco Space Heating was founded by Mr Howard’s father, Leon, in the 1980s.

Last year, the Health and Safety Executive began a prosecution against the firm and Ilke Homes, which had received more than £30million in government funding from Homes England to create a "pipeline" of modular homes which could relieve housing shortages.

However, the case against Ilke was dropped because the company went into administration in 2023. Around 1,150 staff lost their jobs.

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