A pear-packing company has been fined an extra $100,000 on appeal after a young Irish backpacker’s scalp and ear were torn off by a conveyor belt.
Kalafatis Packing Pty Ltd, based in Shepparton, Victoria, has been convicted and ordered to pay $150,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace over the 2015 incident that left Annie Dunne with horrific injuries.
The company was originally fined $50,000 without conviction and ordered to pay $22,000 in court costs in January.
A Victorian pear-packing company has been fined an extra $100,000 on appeal after Annie Dunne (pictured) had her hair tangled in a rotating drive shaft
But the Director of Public Prosecutions labelled the sentence ‘manifestly inadequate’ and appealed, with Shepparton County Court handing down an increased penalty on Thursday.
Miss Dunne was scrubbing the underside of a conveyer belt on November 7, 2015, when her hair became tangled in a rotating drive shaft, a court had previously been told.
Her scalp was then torn from her head and one of her ears ripped off.
The unsafe practice that led to the incident was ‘shocking and completely unacceptable’, WorkSafe’s acting health and safety director Paul Fowler said.
T&R Contracting Shepparton, were also fined $60,000 and ordered to pay legal costs after pleading guilty in 2017.
Ms Dunne (pictured)’s scalp was torn from her head and one of her ears ripped off
‘The dangers of having workers reaching into moving machinery should be obvious to any employer,’ he said in a statement on Friday.
‘The time or cost saved by not powering down is never worth the horrific injuries that could occur and did … occur on this occasion.’
Ms Dunne was hired by a company that specialises in providing backpacker labour to the fruit industry.
The increased penalty was handed down in the Shepparton County Court (pictured) on Thursday