An employee of an electrical company that was previously prosecuted over the same incident has been fined £15,000, after a worker fell to his death through a fragile roof skylight at a West Midlands textile factory.
Wolverhampton Crown Court fined Pervez Iqbal, an employee of Kundi Electrical, and ordered him to pay full costs of £2800 on 21 November, after he had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) of HSWA by failing to ensure an employee’s safety. This case followed a Police and HSE joint investigation into the incident in Smethwick on 20 April 2007.
A charge of manslaughter against Iqbal was dropped last autumn by the CPS.
The court heard that migrant worker Satnam Singh, 62, who had been employed by Iqbal on a cash-in-hand basis, had been preparing to conduct work on the roof of the factory. Plastic rooflights had already been replaced following a burglary at the site, and further work was being carried out by Kundi Electrical to repair recurring roof leaks.
Georgina Speake, the HSE inspector who investigated the case, told SHP Mr Singh had been carrying a large gas cylinder, weighing around 10kg, and following in the steps of Iqbal on the roof. He stepped through a fragile skylight, which cracked as soon as he stood on it, causing him to fall six metres. He landed in close proximity to men working below the roof — although they sustained no injuries — and died later in hospital.
Iqbal said in mitigation he had been severely affected by the incident, which he witnessed, and for which he had been receiving counselling until recently.
In February 2008, Kundi Electrical, Iqbal’s employer, had pleaded guilty to breaching s2(1) and s3(1) of HSWA and was fined £25,000 over the same incident (click here for SHP’s original report).
Inspector Speake commented: “Pervez Iqbal employed Satnam Singh as a labourer and failed to provide him with any safe access to the roof on which he needed to work. This sadly resulted in the death of Mr Singh, yet simple measures such as crawling boards, or a MEWP may have prevented this tragic incident. This case has highlighted that companies and individuals alike are all responsible for health and safety.”
