A Nottinghamshire welding firm has been prosecuted for safety failings after a worker was seriously injured when he plunged from a barn roof onto a grain bucket.

Mansfield magistrates heard that the labourer, who does not wish to be identified, was replacing cement roof sheets on an outbuilding at Clipstone Park Farm, Cavendish Lodge, Mansfield, on 20 November 2008 when he fell four to five metres onto the bucket below.

An employee of IFT Services Ltd, Victoria Street, Shirebrook, he suffered five broken vertebrae, a fractured skull and internal bleeding. He has since left the company.

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A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed the employee had been working from a cage attached to a telehandler but had climbed out onto a scaffold board to continue removing nails from old panels. There was nothing in place to prevent a fall.

HSE inspector Lee Greatorex said: "The worker was extremely lucky to survive. The work on the barn roof should not have been carried out in the way it was and the fall could have been avoided had appropriate safety measures been taken.

"Falls from height are the biggest causes of workplace deaths and it's crucial that employers make sure work is properly planned, appropriately supervised and that sufficient measures are put in place to protect staff from these risks."

IFT Services Ltd admitted breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in relation to the incident. The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,000

(GK)