Payout for young woman burned by hot oil at a St Annes chip shop

22-year-old victim Naomi Craven still has nightmares about the day she was burned during the incident at Seniors chip shop on St David’s Road North.

A court heard how Naomi reached a civil settlement worth £130,000 with the owners.

And in a criminal case brought by Fylde Borough Council, Seniors were ordered to pay £8,466.20 in fines and costs by District Judge Jane Goodwin sitting at Blackpool Magistrates Court.

The company pleaded guilty to five charges brought under Health and Safety laws.

They centred on failing to provide proper risk assessment for staff, failing to provide proper protective clothing, and failing to ensure proper equipment was provided.

The judge heard how the victim was one of six members of the 100 staff employed by Seniors whose duties included the removal of used oil from fryers and replacing it with new oil.

The prosecutor said Naomi Craven had gone into work alone in January 2020.

He said: ”She suffered serious and significant injuries that day. Her job was to remove the used oil from the fryers using a stainless steel scoop and place it in blue plastic bins.”

“During this she went to answer her phone when oil escaped from a hole in the top corner of the bin.”

The oil had a temperature of around 100 C and she had allowed it to cool before starting to scoop it.

However the burns she suffered to her body, legs and feet have left her scarred from life.

The prosecutor told how the oil had spilled onto her legs and then she fell onto the oil covered floor.

Naomi had managed to ring her boss Alastair Horabin and had stripped herself of her clothes as the burns affected her stomach and hands.

It took paramedics eight minutes to get to her as she screamed in agony and she was airlifted to the specialist burns unit at Manchester’ s Wythenshawe Hospital the court heard.

The prosecutor added: “She has lost a great deal of self esteem and still has nightmares about the incident.”

“She cannot go out in the sun because the scars are damaged by sunlight and she has difficulty choosing clothes because she does not want people to see her scars.”

The judge was told that training offered to the victim involved watching other people do the work and she had not been given any personal protection clothing.

During the investigation into the incident council officers discovered that the hot oil had caused the barrel to melt and that the steel scoop was unsuitable for the job.

When asked about the incident Horabin agreed that Health and Safety procedures had not been followed and the risk assessments were inadequate.

He told the hearing that his firm no longer employed the same health and safety company to advise them.

He said: "This has been a very upsetting time for us all. We have been operating for 22 years without an incident of this kind.”

Sentencing Seniors, the judge said: “When this happened she was on her own and must have been very frightened and was panicking and screaming.

“She ran and slipped in the oil suffering significant injuries and was a patient in hospital for weeks and still suffers deep emotional trauma and nightmares.

"It is glaringly obvious that when dealing with hot oil using a plastic bin and a metal scoop was inadequate and which caused significant harm to Miss Craven.”