A firm based in Southport has been fined £6,000 after an employee fell approximately four metres from a bungalow roof and suffered serious injuries.

Instruments & Gauges Electronics Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found that the employee was not given suitable equipment to carry out the work safely.

The 60-year-old from Southport, who has asked not to be named, fractured his skull and back, and broke several ribs in the incident on 6th March 2014.

Sefton Magistrates' Court in Bootle heard that the company specialises in manufacturing and repairing electrical test equipment but that its managing director is also the landlord for several homes.


The employee was asked to repair a broken ridge tile on the roof of a bungalow on Fylde Road in Southport. He used his ladder to reach the flat roof on a conservatory at the back of the property.

The worker then pulled the ladder up onto the conservatory roof and used it to reach the tile at the top of the bungalow roof. He fell around four metres and was found on the ground by the tenant, who called for an ambulance.

The employee was in the high dependency unit at the hospital for a week before being transferred to a normal ward, and was off work for 19 weeks as a result of his injuries.

The HSE investigation found the work on the roof had not been planned or supervised and the worker had not been given suitable equipment, such as scaffolding or a harness.

The company also failed to report the incident to HSE despite this being a legal requirement when workers suffer a serious injury.

Instruments & Gauges Electronics Ltd, of Gravel Lane in Banks, was also ordered to pay £961 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to single breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.

(CD/MH)