Firm fined after window cleaner fell from roof

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 06:30

A window-cleaning firm from Lincoln has been ordered to pay out more than £5,000 after one of its employees fell from a roof, breaking eight ribs.

A Nicoll & Son Limited, which is based in Allenby Road Industrial Estate in Crofton Drive, Lincoln, was charged with breaking Health and Safety at Work regulations.

The city’s magistrates’ court was told how James Theaker, 50, was cleaning windows at Lincoln College, with two other employees, when the accident happened in November last year.

Mr Theaker had climbed onto a flat section of roof at the college to clean windows of a neighbouring building, when he reached over and fell.

The court heard that he plummeted 13ft to the ground, where his fall was broken by metal railings.

Directors of the company, Susan and Alistair Nicoll, pleaded guilty to contravening health and safety regulations.

Health and Safety Executive inspector Judith McNulty-Green was prosecuting in the case.

She told magistrates: “Work at that height should be properly planned and supervised and should be undertaken safely.

“The instructions given to the team were detailed about the location of the job, but were not detailed about the method of cleaning.

“The employees had not been told that they should have used a harness.”

The court heard that the workers had been using the pole-washing system – where water is pumped up extendable poles to clean high windows.

But several windows could not be reached using this method.

So Mr Theaker climbed onto the roof, without the use of a harness to prevent him falling.

Peter Smith, mitigating, told the court that the company has never broken a health and safety regulation before.

A Nicoll & Son Limited was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £2,948 in court costs – meaning it will now have to pay a total of £5,448.

Representatives from Lincoln College are due at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, November 10 to face charges of breaking Health and Safety at Work regulations in relation to the same case.

For a statement from the company following the court case, see Thursday’s Echo.

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