Value retailer Wilko has been fined £2.2m after one of its staff was left paralysed following an accident in-store.
Corisande Collins, 23, became trapped under a metal cage during a shift at the retailer’s Leicester Beaumont Shopping Centre branch in 2013.
Wilko admitted in Leicester Crown Court that it had failed to ensure the health and safety of its employees.
Collins was pulling a roll cage loaded with paint out of a lift when it fell on her, the court heard.
The prosecution described it as a “high culpability case”, the BBC reported, because there was no risk assessment for the use of lifts or roll cages, and staff were given “inadequate training and supervision”.
In a statement, Wilko said it accepted the ruling and would not appeal.
It said: “The greater penalty for all of us is knowing that on this occasion we let one of our team members down.
“We are truly sorry that this incident happened and for the impact it has had on Corisande, her family and those around them which the judge today recognised they have faced as a family and with great fortitude.”
Collins, who was a student working part-time, now uses a wheelchair.
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