Company And Contractor Prosecuted After Worker Falls From Height

A company and a contractor have been prosecuted after a worker fell through the second floor of a building during work to install a CCTV system.

Oriental Security Systems Limited, of Bridge Road, Mossley Hill, Liverpool pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £36,000 with more than £5,156 in costs.

DPC Contracts (London) Limited, of Orchard Road, Stevenage, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1) of the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007. It was fined £65,000 with more than £6,219 in costs.

Greater Manchester Magistrates' Court heard how Stephen Baines, 48, was installing a CCTV security system into a four-storey building on 31 March 2015.


While standing on two timber floor joists, pulling cables down from the loft through the second floor area, he fell more than three metres between the two joists and through a plasterboard ceiling pinned to the underside onto the concrete floor below, suffering serious multiple fractures.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Oriental Security Systems. who had been hired to install the security system, properly planned the work and were unaware that the work areas had changed significantly.

The company failed to put in place a safe system of work and to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to its employees.

firm DPC Contracts (London) were acting as Principal Contractor on the scheme and was responsible for being in control of the site. However, HSE found it failed to properly plan, manage and monitor the work. As a result, there were no measures in place, such as fixing floor coverings to the joists, fitting edge protection to the open edges or restricting access to the unprotected area.

HSE inspector Deborah Walker said: "The risks of working at height on site are well known and were not properly considered by either DPC Contracts (London) Ltd or Oriental Security Systems Ltd and, as a result, there was no safe system of work in place for workers to follow. These failings resulted in a CCTV engineer suffering serious and life changing injuries, which could have been prevented had the risks been properly controlled."

(LM/MH)