Roofing firm fined £6k over worker fall

A Lancashire roofing company has been fined after a worker fell seven metres while carrying out refurbishment work in Gateshead.

Webber Trading was fined £6,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The firm was also ordered to pay nearly £3,000 in costs.

Jeffrey Robinson, director of the company, who was present on the roof and directing operations at the time of the incident was also fined £1,000. In addition, he was ordered to pay £200 costs.

The incident occurred in July 2007, when the owners of the building contracted Webber Trading to carry out industrial roof repairs, which involved fitting steel sheets over existing fragile plastic roof lights.

During the course of the work, 26-year-old Lucasz Czuba stepped onto an unprotected fragile plastic rooflight, which then gave way. He fell seven metres onto the warehouse floor, sustaining serious injuries.

Commenting on the case, HSE inspector Martin Smith said: “The measures which should have been taken in order to prevent this incident happening are straightforward and well documented.

“It is clear that the director and the company failed to recognise the risks posed in working on the fragile rooflights. This serious incident could have been avoided.”