Construction director fined after worker falls from ladder
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The director of a construction company has been fined for safety failings after a worker fell from a ladder, resulting in life-changing injuries.
Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard an employee of MP Jacobs fell from a ladder whilst replacing guttering on a two-storey block of residential flats at Totton Walk, Havant, on 29 October 2014.
The 30-year-old fractured his skull, broke his collar bone and suffered a brain haemorrhage. His injuries caused brain damage and he continues to have problems with memory and tinnitus. He is still attending hospital and is unable to work.
Martin Paul Jacobs, director of MP Jacobs Limited, of Edgell Road, Emsworth, was sentenced in Portsmouth Crown Court and was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,004 in costs after pleading guilty to an offence under Section 37 of The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was also given a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.
Speaking after the hearing, Health and Safety Executive inspector Kate Leftly said: “Falls from height are the most common cause of injuries for those at work, accounting for nearly three in 10 fatal injuries and nearly 600 major injuries to workers every year.
“The work replacing the guttering in this case was not low risk or short duration and other equipment such as a mobile scaffold tower or mobile elevated working platform should have been used.”
