A loft conversion company has been fined £25,000 after a carpenter sustained serious injuries in a fall.
The company, Allied Welsh Ltd, was also ordered to pay £8,000 costs at a Crown court hearing after earlier pleading guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Rhonda carpenter David Morgan fell five metres from an extension ladder while carrying an 8x4ft piece of chipboard weighing 25kg.
He suffered a severely broken ankle, broken wrist and facial injuries where the wood hit him after he fell.
“The company did not have a safe and suitable method of getting materials from ground level up to the loft space where they were working,” said Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Steve Richardson after the hearing.
“Our investigation showed that the company had previous advice from HSE, but did not heed it on this occasion, and there was a systematic failure to provide safe working practices in this particular area.”
HSE is currently running its Shattered Lives campaign to highlight the devastating consequences of slips, trips and falls in the workplace.
