Timber company fined £80,000 after work fall
12 September 2022A Devon-based timber company has been fined £80,000 after an employee fell through a stairwell while working on a barn conversion.
A Health & Safety Executive (HSE) statement said the 49-year-old driver and warehouse operative, employed by Lamisell Ltd, was working on the barn, which was being converted for rental use, at the company’s address near Okehampton, on May 14, 2018.
He was trying to access the first floor of the barn from exterior scaffolding and jumped onto a piece of insulation which was covering a stairwell. The insulation gave way and the worker fractured two vertebrae in the fall.
An investigation by the HSE found the work was not properly planned, appropriately supervised, or carried out in a safe manner when the incident occurred.
Lamisell Limited, of Meeth, Okehampton, Devon pleaded guilty to breaching Section 4 (1) of the Work at Height Regs 2005, and was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,331 at Poole Magistrates’ Court on August 31, 2022.
