The first incident involved a caretaker from Accrington, employed by Bizspace Investments Ltd, he fell through a fragile skylight while cleaning guttering on 20 March 2007 and suffered multiple rib fractures and severe bruising.
Bizspace then sent another employee to the same site to take photographs of the scene, at the industrial unit on Craven Court industrial estate at Winwick Quay, but fell through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped injury.
Three weeks later, on 10 April 2007, a 62-year-old man from Bury, employed by Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, was sent to repair the skylights.
While fixing a skylight, the worker, who asked not to be named, fell more than four metres to the ground below. He sustained severe spinal injuries, leading to him being paralysed from the waist down.
Bizspace, the building’s owner and the employer of the first two men, and Anthony Massey, trading as Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, were prosecuted by HSE for putting workers’ lives at risk
Bizspace Investments Ltd, of Albert Place in Finchley, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.
