Suspended sentence for director over fall-from-height risk


A construction firm’s director has received a suspended six-month jail sentence after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) uncovered failings to protect workers against falls from height.

According to an HSE statement, staff working for roofing firm Weather Master Roofing were pictured repairing a roof in Dorking without scaffolding or edge protection, and were also not wearing harnesses or equipment to protect against falling (pictured).

The HSE said it also presented evidence at Brighton Magistrates’ Court last Monday (2 December) that the workers – who were onsite in February 2023 – were observed using phones and torches while working on the property at night.

Falls from height are the biggest cause of work-related deaths in Britain. In its statement, the inspectorate said there was “no excuse for putting workers’ lives at risk”.

The staff were working under the control of the firm’s director, 20-year-old Jack Avanzo, who was also known as Jack Avenzo, according to the HSE’s investigation.

The regulator said it had issued Weather Master Roofing with an improvement notice in February 2023, ordering it to improve its methods of planning, carrying out and supervising work on the particular roof job. “[But] the company failed to comply with the notice,” the HSE said.

Avanzo, of Ballyspillane, Killarney, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, Section 33(1)(c) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

As well as his suspended prison sentence, the HSE said he has been disqualified from being a director for three years and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work. Avanzo was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.

According to the statement, Weather Master Roofing, of Muswell Hill, Broadway, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and Section 33(1)(c) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in costs, as well as a victim surcharge of £1,600.

HSE inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said falls from height “are still the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain”.

“The law is clear – suitable and sufficient measures must be taken to prevent, where reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury,” she added.

Hickford-Smith also pointed to the HSE’s online support and advice platform on complying with the laws on working from height, which is available, free of charge, here.

In April Construction News examined how survivors of falls from height are supported in the industry, and what is being done to increase awareness around working-from-height incidents.

Data published by the HSE shows that 45 construction workers lost their lives through accidents in 2022/23, of which 25 were caused by falls from height.



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