Fined over

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
AN apprentice who set fire to a colleague in a workplace prank at a Hallam factory has been convicted and fined $5000.
Matthew Lever, 23, was one of three apprentices who threw and then ignited brake fluid cleaner on a new apprentice Daniel Bridgborn, then 17, at their workplace, MTU Detroit Diesel Australia.
Lever was found guilty last Thursday in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on three charges of failing to take care for the reasonable health and safety of his workmates. He was fined $5000 and also has to pay $1000 in legal costs.
The court heard the three apprentices had several verbal warnings from supervisors after other employees saw them spraying the brake cleaner and setting it alight on previous days.
Mr Bridgborn was working under a truck and told the other apprentices not to spray him – but they ignored his warning.
He had been working at the factory in January 2008 for just three days when the incident occurred. He spent a week in hospital with burns.
Lever resigned from MTU Detroit Diesel Australia on the day of the incident, 9 January.
The two other apprentices, Dylan Poulton and Robin Marshall, were convicted in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court in December 2008 and also fined $5000 each.
They were sacked two days after the incident.
Lever declined to be interviewed by WorkSafe investigators after the incident, but Poulton told investigators Bridgborn was his best mate and he had been “under the impression he wasn’t going to be lit because that was just ridiculous.”
Lever did not attend court previously because of difficulties serving him with legal documents after he moved to Western Australia.
MTU Detroit Diesel Australia was not prosecuted.