A BUILDING firm has been fined £20,000 for safety failings after a Caldicot labourer broke his right thigh bone in a fall during work.

Malcolm Milne, 59, fell around eight feet from a single-storey roof to the ground when a beam he was standing on gave way at Beach Cliff in Penarth, on January 30, 2013. He spent several days in hospital, was reliant on crutches for five months and has been unable to return to construction work since.

The incident was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which yesterday prosecuted his employer, Cardiff-based RHP Merchants and Construction Ltd, for failing to provide sufficient measures to prevent or mitigate a fall.

Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard that RHP was the principal contractor for a mixed development project to create commercial units, flats and town houses.

Mr Milne and a colleague were working on a disused lodge building that was being demolished to make way for the new buildings, and were removing roof tiles at the time of the fall.

HSE’s investigation established neither Mr Milne nor his co-worker had any training for the demolition work, and that Mr Milne was also untrained for working at height.

Inspectors found RHP had not carried out any risk-assessment for the work and no safety equipment had been provided for working on the roof.

The court was also told that the project manager was on holiday at the time of the incident, as was a senior site engineer.

RHP pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005. It was fined a total of £20,000 and ordered to pay £9,414 in costs.

David Kirkpatrick, HSE Inspector, said: “Mr Milne’s injuries could have been much worse and he could even have been killed in the fall, which was entirely preventable and would not have happened had the work been better planned, managed and monitored.

“The lack of site management and supervision during the week of the incident played a major part in what happened.”