Katherine Maxwell, Scott Maxwell appeal workplace health and safety breach decision

The owners of a Maryborough pineapple farm claim they were unfairly found guilty and fined over a harvester accident they say was caused by a “galloping” young worker was acting up.

Caleb Mead, 20, pictured, told the court he had been working on the Maxwells’ farm when the incident happened on August 1, 2022, when he was picking pineapples with other workers.

The owners of a Tinana pineapple farm are appealing after being found guilty of failing to comply with workplace health and safety when a young worker was seriously injured by a harvester.

Katherine Anne Maxwell, Scott Evans Maxwell and their company Scocan Holdings Pty Ltd, pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with health and safety duty category 2 in Maryborough Magistrates Court in February last year.

But they were found guilty of the offence and fined $75,000 by Magistrate John Milburn after a trial in which the pineapple picker testified.

At the time, Caleb Mead, 21, told the court he had been working on the Maxwells’ farm when the injury happened on August 1, 2022, as he was picking pineapples with other workers.

He had been working on the farm for about eight months.

On Monday the appeal was heard before Judge Anthony Rafter in Maryborough District Court.

The legal representative appearing on behalf of the Maxwells and their company, Scocan Holdings Pty Ltd, raised a number of issues in relation to the guilty finding when addressing the court on Monday.

The appellants argued that the alleged breaches of duty against the company and directors had not been proven.

The injured worker, Caleb Mead, 20, testified during the trial, which was held before Magistrate John Milburn.

During the hearing on Monday, it was alleged that Mr Mead had conducted himself in a “dangerous way” contrary to instructions he had been previously given, and it was not reasonably practicable to guard against the young worker’s actions.

The court heard he had been told not to dangle his legs over the side of the trailer while it was being moved.

A passage from a statement signed by Mr Mead was also spoken of during the court hearing on Monday.

In a signed statement made to a safety investigator in December 2022 Mr Mead had said “simply to amuse myself I was lifting my feet up and down in the dirt, similar to a galloping-type motion”.

Mr Mead told the court he disagreed with the written statement, and he believed his words were “a bit jumbled up or misunderstood”.

“I had just recently had a tube removed from my throat, I could barely just speak to people,” Mr Mead said at the time.

He denied he had ever used the word “galloping”.

The court heard the finding of guilt had been made on the basis that the trailer itself was an unsafe way of transporting staff around the farm.

But it was mentioned that in 13 years, no other worker had been injured while being transported on the trailer.

Judge Rafter reserved his decision which will be handed down at a later date.

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Originally published as Katherine Maxwell, Scott Maxwell appeal workplace health and safety breach decision