Liverpool Glass Firm Fined For Death Fall

The block in Stockport that landed two companies in court for unsafe removal of asbestos.

Pearsons Glass has been convicted after a roofer was fatally injured when he fell six metres at a property in Liverpool. Meanwhile, a job in Manchester has landed a firm in bother for not bothering about asbestos.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how on 22 May 2017, the roofer was completing snagging work on a replacement roof. The worker had accessed a part of the old roof made of fragile asbestos cement sheets, which gave way. He fell through the sheets to the ground below sustaining fatal injuries.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the building occupier failed to take reasonably practicable measures to reduce the risk to those working on the roof.

 

Pearsons Glass

Owners of the building, Pearsons Glass, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 3. The company was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,656.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Andrew McGrory said: “Businesses have a responsibility to ensure that the contractor they select to undertake any construction work devise safe methods of doing so, which should include providing the necessary information to their workers and ensuring that they are adequately supervised.”

The prosecution of the roofing contractor is ongoing.

 

Unsafe Removal Of Asbestos

A construction company and a property management company have both been fined after failing to manage asbestos safely during a refurbishment of a former office block in Stockport.

Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how Samer Constructions Limited had been contracted by Swift Property Management MCR Ltd to refurbish the property in Hazel Grove, Stockport. Materials containing asbestos along with general waste had been discarded from the property, on and before 2 August 2018 and were spread across the roof of a one storey part of the block. Some of the materials had also fallen onto a car park area below that was not segregated from passing members of the public.

An investigation by the HSE found that an asbestos survey carried out on 31 May 2018 identified the presence of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) including licensed ACMs but this had not been passed to Samer Constructions Ltd prior to work being carried out. Swift Property Management MCR Ltd failed in its duty to pass the survey onto the contractor prior to work commencing. Samer Constructions Limited failed in its duty to identify whether a survey had been undertaken and went ahead with the work in a reckless manner resulting in two employees being exposed to asbestos fibres.

 

Convictions

Swift Property Management pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,428.

Samer Constructions pleaded guilty also pleaded guilty was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,428.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Phil Redman said: “These risks could so easily have been avoided by acting on the findings of the asbestos survey and carrying out correct control measures and safe working practices.”

Picture: The block in Stockport that landed two companies in court for unsafe removal of asbestos.

 

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
17th February 2021

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