A Halifax man's life was shattered after he plunged from the roof of a two-storey house because the firm he worked for paid scant attention to safe systems of working at height, a court was told.

The worker, now 33, who does not wish to be identified, broke his back in the seven-metre fall from the roof of a house in Cookridge, Leeds, on 19 February 2010. He was in hospital 15 days and suffered serious back injuries that will affect him the rest of his working life.

His employers at the time, Fluetech Ltd, pleaded guilty today at Leeds Magistrates' Court to three health and safety offences in a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The company, of Drakes Industrial Estate, Shay Lane, Halifax, was fined a total of £13,500 and ordered to pay costs of £3,873.

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The court heard that the worker was on the roof and just about to install a flue liner down the inside of the chimney. He had put up a roof ladder and stepped onto it when it gave way, sending him falling all the way to the ground below. He did not know there was a dormer extension on the other side of the roof so the roof ladder had failed to hook over the ridge properly.

The HSE investigation showed the company failed to assess the risks properly before the work started, failed to find out there was a dormer window on the rear of the roof, failed to make sure workers were provided with the correct equipment for the job and to take suitable measures to ensure workers were not exposed to risks to their safety.

Inspector David Welsh said: "This worker has suffered horrendous and life-changing injuries as a result of the company's numerous failures. What makes matters worse is that, after the man was taken to hospital severely injured, the company allowed its employees to finish that job and subsequently similar jobs, all using the same unsafe systems of work.

"The company relied far too much on using portable ladders alone. At this job, they should have used scaffolding or a tower scaffold to prevent the roof ladder falling all the way to the ground.

"The company was very poor at assessing and managing the risks of working at heights. Anyone who works in the construction industry knows that falls are the commonest cause of death and serious injury in the workplace."

(CD)