A Northumberland-based construction company has been prosecuted after a worker fell during work to demolish a farm building.

Northern Structures Ltd of Amble Industrial Estate, Amble, has been fined £150,000 with over £791 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1)(a) and Regulation 4(1)(c) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

South Tyneside Magistrates' Court heard how an employee of the company was removing roof sheets from a timber frame farm building on 20 September 2017.

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During the work, he fell around four metres through one of the asbestos cement roof sheets onto the ground below, suffering a fractured spine.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that, while a risk assessment and method statement were in place to remove the roof sheets from below, this method was then changed to remove them from above. It was during this process that the employee fell through a roof sheet.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Loren Wilmot said: "Suitable and sufficient measures should have been in place through the use of alternative access equipment.

"This would have negated the need for the employee to be on the roof of the building, therefore eliminating the risk of a fall from height through the roof sheets."

(LM/CM)