Scaffolder jailed for three months

Prosecutions and Claims |
26.06.2008

The owner of a scaffolding firm has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment after one of his employees fell six metres from scaffolding.

The worker had not been trained, even though the HSE had warned Philip Wolstenholme, owner of Rotherham-based A1 Access Scaffolding, about allowing untrained workers to dismantle scaffolding just months earlier.

The incident happened in January 2007, when Wolstenholme instructed employees Scott Mitchell and Tony Moore to take down a scaffold at a house in Sharrow, Sheffield.

A poorly supported board snapped as Mitchell walked across it and he was thrown to the ground, suffering two fractured vertebrae and a shattered heel. He had two pins and two screws inserted in his back and 20 screws in his foot, and was in hospital for nearly three months.

"There was a harness available in the van," HSE inspector Robert Cooper told HSP, "but as neither worker had been trained, they wouldn't have recognised when to use it, how to use it, or the benefits of using it."

Cooper said Wolstenholme had "wilfully disregarded" HSE advice given after two previous incidents, which resulted in a £7500 fine last year.

In November 2005, the HSE served Wolstenholme with an Improvement Notice after a scaffold he provided for a roofing contractor at a house in Rotherham collapsed. The roofer fell to the ground, suffering ankle and shoulder injuries, and his mobility is still impaired. The notice required Wolstenholme to ensure workers were competent to do the job and that scaffolding was properly inspected.

Then in March 2006, after investigating an anonymous complaint about substandard scaffolding, the HSE served Wolstenholme with a Prohibition Notice requiring him to properly train employees before allowing them to assemble or dismantle scaffolding.

On 7 May, Wolstenholme pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2(1) and 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of employees and contravening a Prohibition Notice.

He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on 23 June.