Jury finds Arrabawn Co-op not guilty in HSA case taken following accident at plant

Arrabawn Co-Op Society Ltd was found not guilty by a jury at Nenagh Circuit Criminal Court of charges arising from a workplace accident in 2017.

The Health and Safety Authority prosecuted the co-op following an accident involving an employee at its plant on Stafford Street, Nenagh, on April 27, 2017.

The co-op was charged under the Health & Safety at Work Act 2005 with failing to to manage and conduct work activities in such a way as to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, in that it failed to put in place adequate control measures around changing over, cleaning and replacement of filters on a live system operating at high temperature and at high pressure, and that as a consequence, an employee sustained personal injury.

The co-op denied the charges.

Following a trial lasting almost two weeks, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty after over two hours of deliberations.