A PROSECUTION against a supermarket giant has been dropped after a forklift truck driver told a court it was his fault a co-worker was badly injured.

Darlington Borough Council withdrew its case against Aldi after warehouse worker John McKie admitted he was to blame for colleague Craig Turnbull's leg being crushed.

The council had claimed the supermarket had contravened health and safety regulations in the accident in January 2014.

However, the court heard from warehouse worker Mr McKie who was driving the forklift that struck Mr Turnbull.

He admitted that he should not have been driving the truck forwards when he hit Mr Turnbull because the correct protocol is to use reverse when a load obscures the driver’s forward vision.

He was dismissed by Aldi following the incident.

The evidence prompted the prosecution to make a submission at the hearing at Darlington Magistrates' Court that there was no case to answer.

Darlington Council said in a statement: "At the hearing the driver of the forklift gave evidence that the accident was entirely his fault and there was no action his former employer could have taken to prevent what happened.

"The defence made a submission that there was no case to answer and the decision was made to withdraw.”

Kieran Rainey, prosecuting for Darlington Borough Council, had earlier described the Aldi warehouse on the Faverdale Industrial Estate as a “very large, very busy” operation with “frenetic, extremely chaotic movement in the aisles”.

He said that a warehouse environment was dangerous by its very nature, but it was up to businesses to do all it reasonably could to ensure staff safety.

The court was shown several minutes of CCTV footage of the warehouse aisle where the incident happened to illustrate how busy it was with vehicles.

The actual collision occurred out of sight of the camera, but the image showed a loaded high-reach forklift truck being driven forwards and colliding with Mr Turnbull off-screen.

An Aldi spokesman said: "Aldi Stores Limited is pleased that the court dismissed the prosecution case. The company takes its health and safety responsibilities extremely seriously and is committed to fulfilling its obligations in this regard."