Retail company fined £450,000 for young girls' injury that was "foreseeable and avoidable"

A London-based company has been fined nearly half a million pounds after admitting a health and safety offence when a falling barrier struck a young girl at Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow.

Arcadia Group Ltd, which owns high street brands such as Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, and Miss Selfridge, pled guilty to a contravention of Sections 3(1) and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £450,000 at Glasgow Sheriff Court after the incident within Topshop.

After entering Topshop on the 7 February 2017, a queue barrier fell on top of the ten-year-old girl, which resulted in her being taken to the Royal Hospital for Children where she was treated for a skull fracture, laceration and haematoma.

The investigation into the incident found Arcadia Group Ltd at fault for failing to ensure that a safe system of work was implemented for the transfer of two queue barriers from the Argyle Street branch to the Silverburn shop as well as failing to ensure that the queue barriers were adequately secured to the floor in accordance with fitting instructions and safety regulations.

Head of Health and Safety Division, Alistair Duncan, concluded:

“Arcadia Group Ltd accepted liability and the Crown accepted their guilty plea to the contraventions of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. Hopefully this prosecution and the sentence will remind other employers that failure to fulfil their obligations can have serious consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings.”

Contact our Personal Injury Lawyers Edinburgh, Scotland

If you have suffered an injury through no fault of your own, you need first-class legal advice and representation from a qualified personal injury solicitor. While our injury lawyers are based in Edinburgh, we assist people from Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Paisley, East Kilbride and throughout Scotland. Contact us today via the online enquiry form.