A demolition company has been fined £12,000 after an employee suffered severe injuries when he fell through a garage roof.
The man, who has not been named, shattered his leg and broke his wrist after falling seven feet through a fragile asbestos cement roof in Grimsby.
He was helping to demolish a block of single-storey garages at Walmsgate Place in the town when the incident happened in January 2009, and was on the roof of one of the garages when it gave way.
Grimsby Magistrates Court heard that the man’s employer, H. Cope & Sons Ltd, was working on sites throughout north east Lincolnshire where garages were being demolished.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the firm’s planning was inadequate and failed to take into account how the garages were constructed.
The man, who had only begun working for the company four months earlier, had to have several operations to insert pins and plates into his limbs and needed to use crutches for more than a year.
He has been unable to work since the incident in January 2009 and, despite bouts of reconstructive surgery, is in constant pain. He is unlikely to ever work in the construction industry again.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the demolition company, H. Cope & Sons Ltd, of Moody Lane, Grimsby, under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company, which pleaded guilty, was fined a total of £12,000 with costs of £3,570.80.
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