Premier league football club fined after worker's three-metre fall

Date:

1 June 2010

Release No:

WM128/09

Premier League football club Aston Villa has been fined after a worker was badly injured by a fall through a roof during the redevelopment of its training ground.

Two contractors from Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd were working at the Bodymoor Heath complex near Sutton Coldfield when one of them plunged three metres through a fragile rooflight.

The company had been employed to drain fuel tanks on a roof during demolition of an old building on the site.

Stratford-on-Avon Magistrates heard that the 34-year-old worker was cleaning the tanks and fell through a rooflight as he was heading towards a ladder to get down.

He broke bones in his heels in the three-metre fall and was off work for more than six months.

The club, its contractor and Mechanical Cleansing Services' director, Damon Roe, all admitted health and safety offences.

An internal ladder was blocked so Mr Roe decided to use a ladder against the outside front of the building to access the roof's plant room. However, both he and the football club failed to inform workers of the dangers or how to avoid the risk of falling through the fragile rooflights.

HSE inspector Carol Southerd said:

"Work at height can be very dangerous if not properly planned and although the victim's injuries were severe, they could have been much worse.

"If the internal ladder had been used, then this incident would not have happened. A simple conversation with the club was all it would have taken to arrange for the blocked ladder to be cleared.

"When working at height all workers must have adequate instruction, training and equipment. It is vital that risks are adequately assessed and managed before employees undertake tasks in hazardous locations. There was clear failure to warn the victim or his colleague of the dangerous condition of the roof or to provide safe access to the tank."

Aston Villa Football Club Ltd admitted breaching Regulation 9(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined £1,350 and ordered to pay £1,610 costs.

Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd - of Aston, Birmingham - admitted breaching Regulation 3(6)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. It was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,610 costs.

Damon Roe, a director of Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd, admitted breaching Section 37(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 after failing to provide adequate information about access to the site for his workers. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,610 costs.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.
2. Regulation 9(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 states: "Every employer shall ensure that no person at work passes across or near, or works on, from or near, a fragile surface where it is reasonably practicable to carry out work safely and under appropriate ergonomic conditions without his doing so."
3. Regulation 3(6)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Where the employer employs five or more employees, he shall record... the significant findings of the [risk] assessment."
4. Section 37(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly."
5. Visit http://www.hse.gov.uk for more information and other HSE press notices.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News & PR (West Midlands)