Footage of safety failings found

A property developer has been fined £112,000 after a labourer sustained fatal injuries in a fall from the roof of an industrial unit, which had no precautions in place to prevent falls.

The building was owned by retired businessman Taj ul Malook Mann and had been demolished and rebuilt as a storage unit. As part of the project, Mann contracted self-employed labourer John McCleary to install roof panels on the new building.

On 12 June 2008, Mr McCleary, 51, was standing on a narrow support beam on the roof when he lost his balance and fell 15 feet to the ground. He was paralysed from the waist down and spent seven months in hospital before dying from pneumonia, which he contracted as a result of his injuries.

Mann did not report the injury, and the HSE only became aware of the incident when the coroner got in contact following Mr McCleary’s death. The work had been completed by the time inspectors visited the site, but they learned that no safety precautions had been in place to prevent falls during the work.

During the investigation, a video was discovered on Mr McCleary’s mobile phone, which was recorded in the weeks before his fall. It showed labourers carrying out work on top of the narrow roof beams without anything in place to prevent falls.

The investigation also learned that a bricklayer had escaped with only bruises after falling six feet from scaffolding at the site in an earlier incident. The worker had refused to continue working for Mann after the incident because of his concerns over safety at the site.

HSE inspector Kevin Jones told SHP that Mr McCleary’s fall could have been prevented if Mann had installed a birdcage scaffold and netting. He said: “As the project manager at the site, Mr Mann was in charge of buying in materials and employing people to carry out work, but he completely failed to take any steps to protect his workforce. John McCleary was balancing on narrow beams with absolutely nothing in place to stop him from falling.

“Had Mr Mann used scaffolding or netting, as he should have done, John McCleary would still be alive today. I sincerely hope that this case acts as a warning to other property developers who think that the law doesn’t apply to them.”

Mann appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 13 January and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 – fine £50,000; reg.13(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 – fine £60,000; and reg.3(1)(b) of RIDDOR 1995 – fine £500. He also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of breaching reg.13(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, in relation to the work he filmed on his phone and was fined £1500. He was ordered to pay £19,331 in costs.

Inspector Jones revealed that the court was told that Mann had transferred ownership of the property and his house to family members soon after he received the court summons. The judge, however, deemed that he still had access to these assets and included them when assessing his financial means, before delivering the sentence.