Two storemen prosecuted for planking

Two Australian factory storemen, Stewart Kift, 49, and Cameron Dendesten, 28 have been fined after planking on the job and posting photos of their pranks on Facebook.    

The two men photographed themselves planking on the raised tynes of a forklift and from the top of a spray booth at a Melbourne factory in May last year.   

Mr Kift planked on top of a spray painting booth, about 3m off the ground. Mr Denbesten was almost 2m off the ground when he planked on a forklift. The two men were working for Ebara Pumps, in Melbourne, when they took the photos.  

WorkSafe prosecuted the men after they were alerted to the photos on Facebook.  

The pair today faced Ringwood Magistrates Court charged with workplace safety offences. 

Magistrate Max Cashmore joked it was not too late for the men to plead insanity. 

He said the pair clearly desired to attract attention when they posted the photographs on Facebook. 

But Mr Cashmore said the pair's previous good character meant they deserved the opportunity to escape conviction. 

He fined the pair $1500 without conviction. 

WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said "the issue was not about planking, it was about ensuring workplace safety, workplaces are not playgrounds. The potential results of these pranks are broken bones, brain injury and death". 

Planking was a short-lived global fad early this year in which people lay horizontally in unusual places. 

Celebrities joined in the antics, including Sam Newman, who planked across the balcony of his high-rise apartment in Port Melbourne. 

Another 20-year-old Brisbane man who planked on a police car was fined $500 after he was charged with being found on a police establishment without lawful excuse. 

At the same time Woolworths sacked eight employees, including two Victorian meatworkers, who planked on work equipment and shelving.