A site supervisor has been fined after a co-worker was left paralysed after falling ten metres from the roof of a Tyneside warehouse.

Temporary employee Phillip Giles fell from an unprotected and fragile roof after supervisor Paul Burke allowed workers, who were removing cement sheets, to go onto the roof, ignoring his company’s safety policy.

Mr Giles, 24, from South Shields, suffered multiple injuries and has been left paralysed from the neck down as a result of the fall.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted site supervisor Paul Burke, of Brighouse, West Yorkshire after an investigation into the incident at the Drum Industrial Estate in Birtley, on 5 September 2011.

Durham Crown Court heard Mr Giles and colleagues were removing roof sheets by gaining access from below via a scissor lift. HSE found that when this became difficult, Mr Burke allowed the workers to go onto the roof itself but without the knowledge of his contracts manager as was required.


At one stage Mr Giles got onto the roof to strip off more sheets, but trod on a loose skylight panel that gave way under him. He fell around 10 metres to the ground below.

The court was told Mr Burke’' employer, which had a contract to remove asbestos cement roofs from a number of warehouses at the site, had identified them as fragile. The company had agreed a system of work where its employees used scissor lifts, removing the roof sheets from the underside.

Mr Burke supervised the work on site, but when they encountered problems in the work he did not bring these to the attention of the contracts manager as required by the company procedure. Instead he permitted a change to the system of work, whereby he and other employees went onto the roof itself to carry out some of the work.

The HSE found the company's agreed system was safe but by changing it, Mr Burke had sanctioned an unsafe system of work. The company was unaware of the changed way of working and Mr Burke had failed to consult with them.

Paul Joseph Burke, 56, of Lightcliffe Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching Regulation 4(1)(b) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 between 4 August and 5 September 2011 by failing to properly supervise work at height and make sure it was carried out safely. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £9,765.88 costs.

(CD/MH)