A roofer has been fined £4,000 after balancing a double extension ladder on a transit van in order to paint guttering on a building next to a busy road.
Southampton Magistrates’ Court heard how George Nicholls, 25, risked causing harm to himself and others when he improvised with the 20 foot ladder to reach the top of a shop front on St Marys Road in Southampton on 14 March 2013.
The Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation after a passer-by reported Mr Nicholls to the local council who captured the footage on camera.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Frank Flannery commented: “The photographic evidence speaks for itself in terms of the risks created.”
Southampton Magistrates’ Court was told that Mr Nicholls, trading as Laser Roofing London and South East Roofing Limited, had been sub-contracted by Norfolk-based Maintenance 24-7 Ltd for the paint job because the company did not possess the correct equipment or expertise.
Upon finding that the façade was higher than the ladder he had with him, Mr Nicholls chose to improvise. This involved situating the ladder on the roof of his van with a labourer at the base providing support as he worked from it fully extended eight metres above ground.
“System was fraught with risk”
The HSE established that in addition to falling from the ladder, no form of segregation was locked in place prior to work commencing to stop vehicles or pedestrians from passing under or near the work area. As such, members of the public were put at risk.
The van in question, it emerged, was also parked over a bus stop on a busy road with double yellow lines. The court was told that a pavement licence should have been acquired to create a properly segregated safe-working area. In addition, scaffolding or a mobile elevated work platform would have provided a safer option for accessing the façade.
HSE inspector Mr Flannery added: “Anyone can see the system of work is plain wrong, so why a supposedly competent roofer chose to work in this way is anyone’s guess.
“George Nicholls blatantly and recklessly risked harming himself and others, and he did so on behalf of Maintenance 24-7 Ltd, who had clear duties of their own to ensure the work at height was properly planned, managed and executed in a safe manner.
“The standards of both parties fell far below those required, and I would like to thank the concerned member of the public who initially brought the matter to the council’s attention.”
Maintenance 24-7 Ltd, of King Street, King’s Lynn, was fined £10,000 with £784 in costs after admitting a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and a further breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
George Nicholls, of Hogs Pudding Lane, Newdigate, Surrey, was fined a total of £4,000 and ordered to pay £666 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and (3(1) of the same Act.
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