Bellway Homes has been fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £14,520 in costs for safety failings after a bricklayer was injured in a fall.

Daniel Kersey, 64, suffered a fractured vertebrae, deep cuts and bruising after falling three metres when a temporary platform collapsed at a development in Reading.

Mr Kersey was working over a stairwell that was loaded with almost 70 concrete blocks when the platform he was standing on collapsed.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation identified concerns with the management of temporary works at the site.

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HSE Inspectors established that the platform was not built to an approved design or checked for stability. The weight of the blocks combined with Mr Kersey was too much, causing the platform to collapse.

Bellway Homes pleaded guilty to two separate breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

This is the second time the Newcastle based home builder has been prosecuted by the HSE.

The company was fined in 2012 for failings with temporary works after a sub-contractor fell through a stairwell.

HSE Inspector Dominic Goacher said: "The need to plan, manage and monitor temporary works on construction sites is well documented, yet despite this, and the earlier prosecution, Bellway Homes failed to implement an effective system for monitoring platforms and the like throughout the lifetime of the Mitford Fields site.

"Bellway Homes is the fourth largest house builder in the UK and it would be expected the company has enough knowledge and experience to have been able to put proper controls in place."

(LM)