INCIDENT - AIMEX Nelson employee Brook Palmer was 19 when he collapsed after cleaning the engine room of a vessel with brake cleaner. He was discovered unconscious by a colleague, and sustained a severe hypoxic brain injury. But this was not the first incident where an employee had been overcome by fumes. The problem was that records relating to the first incident were destroyed and there was a denial of the first incident.
PENALTIES - AIMEX Nelson was sentenced in July 2021 for the subsequent workplace accident and was fined $250,000 and ordered to pay $65,000 in reparation and $1434 in costs after admitting a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The former health and safety officer, William Sullivan was been jailed after his “outrageous dereliction of duty” led to a lifelong brain injury for a young man just starting out on his career. On appeal, Sullivan's sentence was reduced to six months home detention.
Steven Sullivan, the firm’s former managing director, founding member and one-third shareholder, was aware of the creation and destruction of a damning incident report related to the first workplace incident. He was ultimately found guilty of “deliberately and successfully misleading WorkSafe investigators and the court that sentenced Aimex”, which resulted in an undoubtedly smaller penalty, (20 months in prison) the court found at this year’s sentencing. His sentence was not reduced on appeal.