Race Interiors Ltd, a London-based construction company, has been sentenced by Southwark Crown Court after admitting that its health and safety failings resulted in an employee falling through a skylight roof.
A 55 year old Armenian national – Petros Pogosyan – was working at Roseberry Industrial Estate in London for Race Interiors on 18th January 2013.
While working on site, Mr Pogosyan fell from a height of four and a half metres, landing on a concrete floor and suffering life-changing injuries that included a fractured back.
As a result of the incident, Mr Pogosyan is now partly deaf, has partial brain damage, and is paralysed from the waist down.
Southwark Crown Court heard that, due to his multiple and severe injuries, which include psychological trauma, Mr Pogosyan will require personal care for the remainder of his life and will never be able to work again.
Mr Pogosyan’s wife has left her own career to become a full-time carer for her husband, and state benefits have been the couple’s only income source since the incident.
HSE inspector Simon Hester said: “This tragedy should not have happened. Nobody should work on a roof without proper planning.
“It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to prevent a fall.”
Judge May QC said that the accident could have been prevented easily, and that the company failed to ensure the site supervisor was trained.
She added that the company could show no evidence of planning, of conducting a risk assessment, or creating a method statement for work that was to be carried out at the industrial estate.
Race Interiors Ltd was fined £60,000, with costs of £7,784, after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
However, Judge May QC took the unusual decision to convert the fine into a compensation order of £60,000, to be paid directly to Mr Pogosyan, because Race Interiors is in dispute with its insurance company.
For more information about fragile roofs, please see here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/geis5.pdf