A FORMER soldier was crushed by a seven tonne armoured car as he guided it onto a trailer in a 'shambolic' operation at a military vehicle depot, a court heard.

Dad-of-three Reuban Adjonyoh, 38, of Malmesbury, suffered multiple hip and pelvic fractures which have left him with a limp and unable to continue playing football and running marathons.

At Gloucester Crown Court his employers, Babcock DSG, of Ashchurch, near Tewkesbury, admitted failing to ensure his safety at work and were fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Judge Michael Cullum ruled, after hearing evidence about the incident on June 4, 2015, that the firm was less culpable than Health and Safety Executive prosecutors had alleged but there were still 'shortcomings' in its safety training.

"I do not find that there was an unsafe system of working," he said. "But there was a lack of updated risk assessment."

Workers like Mr Adjonyoh had been trained in safe methods of loading operational vehicles onto trailers - but not those which were non-operational, like the one which crushed him, the court heard.

Judge Cullum was told that the accident happened when, for the first time in Mr Adjonyoh's experience, two Foxhound armoured cars, had to be put onto a low loader at the depot.

The first was operational and was driven on under Mr Adjonyoh's guidance as he stood on the trailer directing it.

But the second vehicle was non-operational and had to be pushed onto the trailer from behind by a tractor - which Mr Adjonyoh could not see.

He stood behind the first vehicle relaying his directions to a third worker standing to the side. But the Foxhound did not stop when it reached him and he was crushed between the two armoured cars.

Ghana-born Mr Adjonyoh told the court he had been a soldier in the Royal Logistics Corps for seven years before his accident and had done the same kind of vehicle marshalling work then.

After leaving the army he was employed as a civilian marshaller in the Ashchurch depot, intially by the firm DSG and then by Babcock when they took over only weeks before the incident.

He said he had to stand where he was on the loader to get the armoured cars on because there was no other position from which he could see clearly.

He said he had 'never been aware' of the advice never to stand between a moving object and an immovable object. His understanding was that he should use his own initiative to load vehicles safely and accurately, he said.

After the hearing Mr Adjonyoh said he spent a week in hospital following the accident and was then on crutches for a year.

He still gets numbness down his legs, walks with a limp, and cannot play with his children - aged two, four and six - as he would wish.

"It makes them sad when I have to tell them to leave me alone," he said.

"I used to pride myself on keeping fit. I ran marathons and played football regularly but I can't do that any more."

Giving his judgement after a 'trial of issue' Judge Cullum said: "What is accepted by the company in its basis of plea is that there was no updated risk assessment for the movement of non-operational, non-runner, vehicles.

"But what is not accepted by the company is the assertion that there was no safe system of work for loading non-operational vehicles.

"The staff had been trained in how to position themselves out of harm's way and to remain in communication. What was done on the June 4, 2015, was by definition unsafe. It looked like an accident waiting to happen. "

He said he was satisfied that Mr Adjonyoh and other workers in the depot would have had clear training about never positioning themselves between a moving vehicle and an immovable object.

"It is however accepted by the company that there was no specific training in relation to non runners and no training in loading two vehicles togethers," he said.

"What happened that day was desperately unfortunate. It was, frankly, shambolic. There was a perfectly safe system which should have been deployed, even though the exact circumstances of the event had not been the subject of specific training.

"The basis rules were: do not stand on the same level as a moving vehicle, do not place yourself between a moving and a non-moving object, stop when communication breaks down. Each of the four men there could have prevented an accident."