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Nofax Enterprises was the property manager for a five-storey block flats on Cambridge Heath Road in East London.

When a 23-year-old returned to the flats with a group of seven friends after a night out on 9^th September 2019, they got in the lift on the ground floor. The lift then began to shudder and drop with the doors still open. As it began to fall, the young man attempted to scramble out but he was crushed between the ground floor and the top of the lift. The crush injuries he sustained were so serious he eventually required a liver transplant.

The investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Nofax Enterprises Limited, as property manager, had failed to act when defects with the lift were identified by a third party.

Health and safety law places specific obligations on those providing, controlling and using lifting equipment. Thorough examinations should be carried out by a competent person at six-monthly intervals for lifts designed to lift people. When a defect is identified that poses a danger, the lifting equipment should not be used until the defect is remedied.

Nofax Enterprises Limited of Swiss House, Beckingham Street, Tolleshunt Major, Essex, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £8,540 in costs at Southwark Crown Court on 22^nd July 2025.

HSE inspector Pippa Knott said: “As a result of this company’s failures, a young man who was simply returning from a night out with friends has suffered life-changing injuries. The fine imposed on Nofax Enterprises Limited should underline to everyone in property management that the courts, and HSE, take these failures extremely seriously. We will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”

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