Enterprise fined £15k for pub safety breaches

Enterprise Inns has been fined £15,000 for failing to maintain adequate records of electrical certification at a pub where a licensee was injured after an explosion.

The pubco admitted two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act when representatives appeared at Cardiff Crown Court.

Charges related to Enterprise not obtaining a periodic inspection report on the electrical condition of the St Fagan's Castle in Penarth, South Glamorgan. Enterprise was also ordered to pay £7,500 in costs.

The prosecution was not related to the fire itself.

St Fagan's licensee Mark Peers was left in a critical condition after being knocked unconscious by an explosion at the pub. He ended up in an induced coma for five weeks. The pub was also damaged in the blast.

Vale of Glamorgan Council, which brought the court action, said a registered survey had not been carried out prior to the incident in January 2009.

Judge Michael Farmer QC said: "It is impossible to say now whether the survey would have prevented the fire.

"However, Enterprise Inns did have a duty to carry out a registered survey, and failed to do so."

In a statement, Enterprise said: "Enterprise Inns has pleaded guilty to two health and safety offences of a technical nature in relation to the provision of adequate testing and maintenance records for the electrical installation at the St Fagan's public house between March 2007 and January 2009.

"Health and safety are of the utmost importance to Enterprise Inns, which has co-operated fully with the local authority throughout its investigation and has taken a number of steps as acknowledged by the court, to ensure that electrical test certificates are obtained for premises within their estate when required."