A Manchester builder has been sentenced after two of his employees put themselves and members of the public at risk while carrying out dangerous works on a roof.
The workers were spotted using unconventional building practices, whilst replacing broken tiles on a Frankie and Benny’s restaurant in Salford Quays.
The employees at Mr McElvaney’s company, Shire Building Services, used a tower scaffold to reach the roof, but the job required them to work directly on the roof, which they decided to do so without the proper safety equipment.
At one point a roofer was seen working directly above a customer, who was sitting at a table outside the restaurant, the area below where they were working had not been cordoned, putting members of the public at risk.
Mr McElvaney, of Valley Road in Old Withington, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure the work was properly planned and carried out safely. He was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,916 on 26 November.
HSE Inspector Declan Geraghty said:
“Mr McElvaney is lucky no one was seriously injured or even killed as a result of the poor safety standards. The work had not been properly planned and as a result a tower scaffold was the only protection provided.
“The roofers had to work all over the roof to replace a significant number of roof tiles but the tower scaffold could only be used for a small section of the roof. There were also no measures taken to cordon off the area below where his employees were working.
“If one of the workers had slipped and fallen, or a tile had been dropped onto a customer or member of staff, then the consequences could have been fatal”.
