30/11/2010 - Builder fined for safety failings
Failing to ensure the safety of his staff and the public has left a Chesterfield builder with a fine of thousands of pounds.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted 52-year-old Andrew McElvaney, who runs Shire Building Services, because two of his workers were replacing tiles on the roof of a restaurant without adequate safety gear.
Magistrates in Trafford were told that customers as well as staff at Frankie and Benny's in Salford Quays were put at risk because of the poor work practices in November last year. The area under which the roofers were working was not cordoned off and at one point one of the roofers worked directly above a customer sitting at a table outside the restaurant.
A scaffold was used to get up to the roof but the work area was outwith the protection of this. Magistrates were told the two roofers could have been seriously injured if they happened to fall the three metres to the ground.
Mr McElvaney, from Valley Road, Old Withington, admitted failing to ensure the work was properly planned and carried out safely, breaking regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,916.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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