A BOTTLING firm has been ordered to pay more than £20,000 after a worker was injured while being lifted on the prongs of a forklift truck.

The 39-year-old was filmed on CCTV standing on the forks of the vehicle as it lifted him and a battery-operated pallet truck across the warehouse floor at H&A Prestige Packing Company Ltd in Chorley.

As the vehicle moved, the pallet truck overbalanced and fell from the forklift.

The worker tried to hold on but also lost his balance and was caught between the forks on the pallet truck.

He avoided being burned by the battery acid which leaked from the vehicle, but suffered bruising.

H&A Prestige Packing was prosecuted following the incident at its factory at Ackhurst Business Park in May, 2011.

Magistrates heard the company had been hired to bottle an energy drink for export. The pallets of bottles were heavier than usual, each weighing one-and-a-quarter tonnes, so a pallet truck was used to move them inside the containers.

On the day of the incident, the warehouse shift manager had stood on the prongs on the forklift on four separate occasions so that the pallet truck could be lifted in and out of the containers.

When he finished his shift at lunchtime, he asked another worker to take over.

It was this worker who fell from the forklift approximately 40 minutes later.

A HSE investigation found that several workers and managers had been seen standing on the prongs. However, the behaviour had remained unchallenged by two layers of management.

The company was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £6,657 for the offences.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Tracy Read said: “Rather than being a one-off incident, our investigation found that it had become commonplace for workers to stand on the prongs of moving forklift trucks.”