
![]() |
Mark Sennett
Managing Editor |
![]() |
Kelly Rose
Editor |
Home> | Industry Update | >Company News | >Roofing firm fined after worker suffers back fracture |
Roofing firm fined after worker suffers back fracture
13 October 2017
Dufell Roofing Company, a Darlington based roofing company was sentenced today after an employee suffered a fracture to his back requiring surgery.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the injured person, Stephen Merryweather, an employee of Dufell Roofing Company, was in the process of fitting new plywood boards over the top of existing wood wool slabs on a roof at a site in Morpeth on 15 April 2015. Two employees were in the process of positioning the second plywood board when the injured person fell four metres through one of the wood wool slabs onto the floor of the plant room, colliding with internal pipework.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuting told the court the firm should have identified that the roofs were potentially fragile and should have planned the work around this fact, with measures in place to prevent a fall through a fragile surface.
Dufell Roofing Company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 15(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and was fined £25,000 with £24,572.84 costs, plus a victim surcharge of £120.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said: “This injury was easily prevented and the risk should have been identified.”
- Businessman in court after worker loses forearm
- Executive opinion - March 2022
- Not enough being done to tackle work-related ill health, say GB’s business leaders
- Company fined after worker fell through fragile skylight
- Health & Safety Executive investigating Drayton Manor
- Engineering Company in court over forklift incident
- Roofing firms fined after worker fell to his death
- HSE food manufacturing inspections target the causes of workplace ill-health
- Council fined £250,000 for not protecting worker's health
- Steel firm fined over death at foundry