MD in court over petrol explosion

A COMPANY boss has been given a suspended prison sentence after an employee suffered severe burns on a building site in Swyncombe.

Milton Keynes magistrates heard how Marcin Wojtas, managing director of MWJ Construction, failed to take reasonably practicable precautions for the decommissioning of a petrol tank, which resulted in an explosion.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into the incident on July 9 2018, found that the member of staff and another operative were instructed by Wojtas to use an angle grinder to remove the tank lid to speed up the process.

While doing this task, petrol vapours within the tank were ignited. The injured worker sustained burns to 26 per cent of their body.

The investigation also found Wojtas had been informed by an officer from the Petroleum Enforcing Authority that the work to decommission the tank was a specialised operation and needed to be completed by a competent contractor.

Neither operative had any of the training, experience or knowledge required to make them competent.

Wojtas, of Hatfield Road, London, pleaded guilty to breaching section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

He was given a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay costs of £8,455.