Fall from height fatality – Religious Charity Volunteer

A fall from height fatality can happen in many settings. This case is not unusual: warnings were ignored and money was saved.

A religious charity from Liverpool has been fined £65,000 for breaching health and safety laws following the death of a volunteer who fell through a roof void whilst undertaking insulation work. The fall from height fatality happened while the 39-year-old member of the church congregation (LB) was assisting builder (KT) in laying insulation in the auditorium and fell approximately 25 feet through a suspended ceiling at the Liverpool Lighthouse Church in 12 February 2010.  Liverpool Crown Court heard that an investigation by Liverpool City Council found that the ceiling was fragile and there was a clear, high risk of falling in this space.

LB had been wearing a harness, which had been provided by the charity. However, the harness offered no protection to LB as the lanyard on it was not long enough to do the work safely and it was not attached to a suitable anchor point. The builder (KT) bought a lightweight nylon rope from B&Q and tied it to the harnesses to extend it. The rope was not able to support a person. The rope offered no protection and LB was able to fall to his death through the ceiling void.  The court heard that the charity had received a grant for £1,988 to insulate the roof space. KT, who is a churchgoer at the Lighthouse, was paid £588 to do the job on a labour only basis. It was noted in court that he had not provided a quote for this work and also that the Charity did not carry out any checks to see if he was competent to do this work. The City Council established that KT had never used a harness before. The Court also heard that another builder had quoted £1,980 to do the work and had warned the charity that the ceiling space was hazardous with a “danger of death”.

The Charity failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment and failed to review the method of work, despite being warned that it was dangerous to work in the ceiling void and after a bale of insulation had fallen through the ceiling seven days before the fall from height fatality occurred. The charity had also been warned by a contractor in January 2010 that the roof space was dangerous and that there was a risk of a fall from height fatality.

The Charity was fined £65,000 and also ordered to pay £135,000 towards costs after it was found guilty of breaching section 3(1) of the HSWA.  The builder (KT) was sentenced to 33 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 125 hours unpaid work and to pay £1,500 towards the council’s costs after he pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(2) of the HSWA.

In passing sentence, the Judge found that the charity had wanted the job done “on the cheap” and that “it was inevitable that something would go wrong“. He also stated that the director of the charity had deliberately lied to the jury about key points. However, he took into account the charity’s good work in the community and their financial state – adding that had the charity been a normal commercial business with the means to pay a large fine, he would have had no hesitation in fining it £250,000 following this fall from height fatality