Dealers in court after man breaks back in showroom plunge

TWO car dealers have been fined for health and safety breaches after an employee fell through a roof, breaking his back.

Paul Green and Elliott Green, trading as Douglas Paul Cars, of Rotherham Road, Maltby, were ordered to pay a total of £5,630 each after a prosecution by Rotherham Borough Council last Thursday.

Rotherham Magistrates’ Court heard that a valeter and driver employed at the company’s Used Mini Centre fell 11.4 feet through a skylight on the workshop roof on June 11 last year.

The 59-year-old landed on the workshop floor below and suffered three fractures to his back and also a fracture to his left elbow.

He has since recovered from his injuries and returned to work.

An investigation by Adrian Monkhouse, an Environmental Health Officer for the borough council, found that the employee was attempting to seal leaks on the workshop roof with felt and Bitumen at the time of the accident.

He had accessed the roof through one of the office windows on the first floor but, as he was working, caught his foot on a roof bolt and tripped and fell through the skylight.

Mr Monkhouse said that no assessment of the risk to the safety of employees working on the workshop roof had been carried out by Douglas Paul Cars and consequently no precautions were taken to prevent falls through the fragile surface.

The court also heard that during the investigation two improvement notices were served instructing the company to assess the risk to employees and non-employees of falling a distance liable to cause personal injury, and also to provide warning notices at the approach to fragile surfaces through which a person may fall. 

Both notices were complied with within the specified timescales.

Rotherham Borough Council brought a charge against father and son, Paul and Elliott Green, trading as Douglas Paul Cars, under the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to ensure the safety of its employees.

A further charge was brought for failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees while they were carrying out roofwork.

Neil Concannon, solicitor for Rotherham Borough Council, said that an aggravating feature of the case was that despite the fragility of the roof and the incident that had occurred, another employee was also taken up onto the roof to repair the skylight following the original accident.

Paul Green of Sheffield Road, South Anston, pleaded guilty to the two charges and was fined £1,000 for each charge, ordered to pay costs of £3,615 plus a £15 victim surcharge.

Elliott Green of The Dell, Woodlaithes Village, also pleaded guilty to the two charges and was fined the same amount of £1,000 and ordered to pay the same amount of costs plus the victim surcharge.

This meant that both men will have to pay a total of £5,630 each.

In mitigation, counsel for the defendants said there was never intention by the defendents to put any of their employees at risk and that following the accident they had taken steps to remedy the deficiencies identified.

The court also heard that an early guilty plea had been entered by both defendants and that they had fully co-operated with the borough council’s environmental health officer throughout the course of the investigation.

Cllr Richard Russell, the borough council’s cabinet member responsible for health and safety, said the prosecution emphasised that the authority takes the health and safety of Rotherham people very seriously.

He added: “Where appropriate we will prosecute any company no matter how large or how small, which fails to fulfil their legal duties to protect the welfare of their workers.

“Employers must consider the well-being of their staff and most importantly, stop and think before asking their staff do undertake dangerous tasks that are not within their normal duties.”