Man's work injury sees construction company fined

A construction company has been fined £4,000 after one of its employees suffered a work injury.

PO Sharps Landscapes has fined this amount and instructed to pay £4,000 in costs at Bournemouth Magistrates Court.

The company admitted to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

In September 2008, Michael McCarthy, from Verwood, was contracted by the company to work at a property in Poole and was building the roof of an extension when he fell three metres from the building.

The 60-year-old suffered a work injury in the fall, fracturing his ankles and spine.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that the platform he had been using did not have any guardrails and that the ladder was positioned outwards, meaning that he had to stand on an unguarded edge backwards.

In addition, the HSE recently revealed that provisional data for the period April 2010 to March 2011 showed that the numbers of workers fatally injured had increased on the previous year's figure.

Published by Hannah Carr