$5000 fine for prank

A GLADYSDALE man who set fire to his colleague in a workplace “prank” has been fined $5000.
Matthew Lever, 23, was one of three apprentices who, in a January 2008 incident, threw brake fluid cleaner on a new apprentice, then 17-year-old Daniel Bridgborn, and ignited it.
Ringwood Magistrates’ Court last Thursday (1 July) convicted Matthew Lever on three charges of failing to take care for the reasonable health and safety of his workmates and fined him $5000.
He was also required to pay $1000 in legal costs.
The court heard the three apprentices had several verbal warnings from supervisors after other employees had witnessed 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 Hallam factory in January 2008 for just three days when the incident occurred. He spent a week in hospital with burn injuries.
Lever resigned from MTU Detroit Diesel Australia on the day of the incident, 9 January 2008.
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 Dylan Poulton told investigators that Daniel Bridgborn was his best mate and he had been “under the impression that he wasn’t going to be lit because that was just ridiculous”.
Mr Lever did not attended court previously because of difficulties serving him with legal documents after he moved to Western Australia.
MTU Detroit Diesel Australia was not prosecuted.