A Leicester man has been given a 12-month suspended prison sentence for failing to properly plan roof work, after a migrant worker sustained fatal injuries in a fall at a disused factory unit.
The incident took place on 3 June 2009 at a former textile dye house in Evington Valley Road, Leicester. Musa Suleman was the previous occupant of the building, before he sold his business.
However, the new property owner allowed him to return to the site to assess the condition of the machinery left behind, which his son owned and panned to rent out. When Suleman entered the building he noticed that water was leaking through the roof and dripping on to the machinery. He arranged for Robert Jozwiak, 44, to repair the roof without the permission of the property owner.
Suleman failed to properly plan, manage, or supervise the work and did not give Mr Jozwiak a copy of a risk assessment. Mr Jozwiak accessed the asbestos cement roof without any safety equipment and subsequently fell through the fragile roof, landing on the concrete floor six metres below. He suffered fractures to his skull and back and died in hospital later that day.
HSE inspector Karl Raw told SHP that Suleman had no authority to sanction the repairs and failed to take any precautions to protect Mr Jozwiak. He should have provided crawling boards to spread the load over the roof, and also installed nets underneath the roof to catch Mr Jozwiak in the event of him falling.
Inspector Raw said: “The roof was made of corrugated asbestos cement sheets, and the work required careful planning and consideration of the risks involved. Tragically, Mr Suleman failed to do this and to properly supervise the work, which resulted in the needless death of a husband and father.
“Safe routes and protective equipment should have been in position to allow Mr Jozwiak to get to work areas without injury, and measures to prevent or mitigate any falls should have been in place.
“Work at height remains a major cause of injury and fatalities in the workplace and for this reason appropriate planning, supervision and safety measures are essential. This becomes even more critical when a job involves work on, or near, fragile roofing materials, as at this site.”
Suleman appeared at Leicester Crown Court on 16 January and pleaded guilty to breaching reg.4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. His custodial sentence was suspended for two years and he was ordered to pay £13,800 in compensation to Mr Jozwiak’s family, plus full costs of £17,337.
In mitigation, Suleman said he had created a risk assessment but had not translated it into Polish, or given it to Mr Jozwiak. He accepted responsibility for the incident and entered an early guilty plea.
Delivering his sentence, Judge Simon Hammond said: “Mr Jozwiak’s death was a terrible tragedy that could have been prevented. There are clear lessons to be learned and I urge anyone working on buildings to treat health and safety as their top priority in order to prevent injury, or death.”
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time and time again people are putting the lives of others at risk under loss of stock and profit. unless a law is brought into line with the crimes that are being committed human life will always be over looked to gain profit. we all know what should be in place before you start a job but im afraid greed and lack of inteligence will always be a big problem..
A terrible waste of life £13800 in compensation for a death what deterent is that with no prison sentence amazing. Still i don’t know all the details but this seems to me a very light sentence.
Those who have read Lord Sugar’s latest book of rants where he disputes the need for work at height measures as a waste of money should see reports like these.
very light sentence how much more in the wrong could the bloke be. He was in no position to order the repairs and did nothing to properly plan or manage the work. So one man loses his life, which is seemingly valued at £13,800. Time for some consistency in sentencing.