Court fines firms over £50,000 for carrying out inadequate risk assessment

Two firms and a company director have been prosecuted for health and safety breaches which resulted in the death of a man working on a refurb job.

TRN Electrical and Cladcoat UK pleaded guilty to the infringements after father of two Carl Pearson fell six metres to his death on 1 December 2007.

Sherbourne-based TRN was fined £30,000 plus costs of £14,850 while Bournemouth-based Cladcoat UK was fined £10,000.

Cladcoat director Jeremy Walton was given a conditional discharge by Southampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches.

TRN had contracted Cladcoat to carry out roof work and external cladding on its behalf. Cladcoat assigned Pearson the job of replacing damaged rooflights as part of remedial works on the building.

A HSE investigation later found the risk assessment on the job to be inadequate – which resulted in Pearson carrying out work on a fragile roof.

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