Builders fined £22,000 over fall
20/04/2010
An East Yorkshire construction firm has been fined more than £22,000 after a worker fell four metres from the roof of a building.
TMN Fabrications, of Holme on Spalding Moor, was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws at Beverley Magistrates' Court.
The court heard that Dean Lightowler, from Goole, was working on the roof of a building at Park Farm, Everingham, York, when he fell.
The 28-year-old had been fitting fibre-cement roof sheeting when the accident happened on January 28, 2009.
The agricultural building company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which found it failed to provide adequate edge-protection, nets or suitable work platforms for its employees during the roof work. A month after the incident, employees were again required to work on the roof without adequate safeguards.
The company also failed to report Mr Lightowler's fall until March 17 – more than two months after it occurred. It was fined £22,500 and £7,103 costs.
After the hearing, inspector Geoff Clark said: "If these standards are not followed it poses a risk of serious, if not fatal injuries for those at work, and HSE will take action."
The firm, which is now in liquidation, was found guilty of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, Regulation 3(2) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, and Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
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