Newsagent firm fined £6k for fall

RS McColl worker left seriously hurt after accident with defective ladder

- EMYLIE HOWIE

A newsagent company has been fined for health and safety failings which left a Renfrewshire worker with severe injuries.

West Yorkshire-based Alliance Property Holdings Limited, which trades as McColl's, pleaded guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 at Paisley Sheriff Court last week and was fined £6,000.

The prosecutor told the town's court that, around 12.30pm on May 25, 2023, within RS McColl, Paisley, the branch supervisor went to the storeroom to retrieve stock.

She was using a stepladder to access the stock stored on a high shelf and, while doing this, she fell from it.

A colleague heard a thud and saw the woman lying on the floor with her head leaning against a plastic box.