A father and son have been sentenced following an incident in which a Lithuanian worker died in an eight metre fall while undertaking refurbishment works to a roof. Following their guilty pleas to safety breaches the men received a prison sentence and a suspended prison sentence. A third family member was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work.
HSE found that the defendants had failed to plan the work at height, employ competent contractors, that they had deliberately chosen to save money and were well aware that work was being carried out in an unsafe manner using unskilled workers.
The fatally injured worker, Ivars Bahmanis, a 55 year old Lithuanian national living and working in Blackburn, was involved in building work at the former canal works building at Manner Sutton Street when he fell nearly eight metres and died as a result. During the investigation HSE discovered that another employee, Juris Lesinkis, a Latvian national living and working in Blackburn, had fallen from a height and broken his leg at the same site, an accident which was not reported to HSE.
At the sentencing hearing on the 19 May, Preston Crown Court heard that Mr Bahmanis was carrying out refurbishment work involving installing metal brackets for new roof joists when the incident happened on the 29th January 2012. While he was working alone he fell from the wall, due to a complete lack of safety measures being in place.
Three members of the same family who had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the charges received the following sentences:
Following the case, HSE Inspector Allen Shute said: “The dangers of working at height are well known – and can be easily and safely managed. It needs to be properly planned and carried out by competent contractors.
“The defendants tried to save money by asking unskilled workers to carry out hazardous work activities around the building. As a result Mr Bahmanis died needlessly in a horrifying incident which could and should have been prevented. There had also been a previous incident on site where another worker fell from height and broke his leg, which was never reported to HSE and only came out during the investigation. This should have served as a warning to them.”
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, subscribe and join the conversation today!
Unbelievable. I am just staggered at what people think they can get away with in this day and age. However, even more worrying is the amount of similar work that goes on without any safety measures in place where incidents don’t get reported, or injuries treated under the guise of a non work-related activity.
I am pleased to see a custodial sentence in this case but I think that making it absolutely not worth the cost of indulging in such activities through heavy custodial sentences and swingeing financial penalties would, it seems, be the only language they understand.