A scaffolder has been handed two suspended prison sentences after he repeatedly put the lives of workers at risk by allowing unsafe work at height to be carried out on a busy London street. A concerned member of the public sent video and photo evidence of the poorly erected 15 metre high scaffolding, to the HSE.
Greg Pearson, from Enfield, trading as ‘Pearsons Scaffolding’, was prosecuted by the HSE after the concerns were raised about scaffolding work being carried out on Tavistock Street in central London.
HSE visited the site twice and found the incomplete scaffold to be poorly erected and unsafe work practices were putting workers at risk. No measures had been taken to prevent any falling scaffolding equipment hitting members of the public below.
HSE served a Prohibition Notice ordering work to be stopped until the scaffold was made safe, but Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Pearson ignored this and other warnings, carrying on regardless.
The court also heard Pearson failed to respond when required to produce documents for inspection during the investigation, hindering the HSE’s efforts to ensure future work was carried out safely at other sites. Pearsons Scaffolding’s involvement at the site only ended when a second Prohibition Notice was served and the project’s Principal Contractor decided to take on another scaffolder to complete the work.
Greg Pearson, 33, of South Street, Enfield, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (6(3), 10(1)) and was given two suspended prison sentences of 10 weeks to run concurrently, suspended for 12 months. He was also ordered to pay costs of £200 and a victim surcharge of £80.
Speaking after the hearing HSE Inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said: “Greg Pearson repeatedly put the lives of other workers and members of the public at risk. He blatantly disregarded all warnings and enforcement action taken against him and it was just good fortune that no one was killed.
“It’s vital that law abiding scaffolders have confidence they will not lose work to others who underquote them because they take shortcuts at the expense of safety.
“This case should send a message to other scaffolders that Courts will sentence robustly even when the reckless working practices have thankfully not resulted in serious injuries or fatalities.
“I applaud the member of the public who alerted us to this as thankfully we were able to avoid the workers or the public being injured or killed. We encourage people to report unsafe work to us so we can act to protect workers and the public.”
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From experience travelling around the UK, this is currently fairly normal practice with the scaffolding industry. In the last three months I’ve witnessed this exact behaviour in London, Hastings, Swansea, Ipswich and St Peters Port in Guernsey. As a safety practitioner of 25 years experience, I have on two occasions where teenagers (18 -19 year olds) were involved quizzed the foreman/supervisor. One of these events involved a man on the 3rd stage throwing tubes down to the lad in the truck below. No helmet or boots. In all cases nobody was wearing harnesses or helmets and it was clearly evident… Read more »