A vehicle service and repair company has been fined £20,000 by Jersey’s Royal Court, after an apprentice suffered severe burns when at work.
The company has also been ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.
Morris Marine & Motors Ltd were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Inspectorate for failing to discharge Article 3(1) duty of the Health & Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989, which required them to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees.
The prosecution arose from an accident where an apprentice received severe burns from a blow torch, used in the vicinity of a flammable brake cleaner he had been using to clean the bilge of a boat in dry dock.
The apprentice had to be transferred to Southampton for burns treatment. He had been in the company’s employment for just under two months at the time of the accident in July 2023.
The Health and Safety Inspectorate (HSI) investigation identified several significant failures in the management of health and safety at Morris Marine and Motors Ltd which contributed to the incident, including a failure to suitably assess the hazards and risks associated with the boat bilge cleaning activity, accounting for additional risk factors, such as the apprentice’s youth and inexperience, in the assessment of risk; a failure to provide training and supervision; and a failure to utilise appropriate information sources to help quantify and manage the risks to health and safety associated with that activity.
Morris Marine & Motors Ltd pleaded guilty to the offence and were fined £20,000, plus £5,000 in costs, at Jersey’s Royal Court on Thursday 18 September 2025.
