A builder has been fined for failing to ensure the safety of a self-employed labourer working for him. The man died after falling from an unsecured ladder.

The incident happened while Derek Wensley was carrying out construction work in Alne, North Yorkshire, for Peter Wright (who traded as PW Joinery & Building Services). Derek Wensley fell from an unsecured stepladder while ascending from the ground to the first floor of a two-storey extension.

Teeside Crown Court heard that the stepladder was too short to reach the first floor adequately. Access to the upper level was through a gap in the flooring between joists. Mr Wensley was carrying a bucket of mortar up the ladder when he fell. He suffered fatal head injuries.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE), prosecuting, told the court that the incident could easily have been avoided. It said Peter Wright had not carried out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and failed to plan and supervise work at height appropriately.

HSE said if he had done so he would have identified failings in the standard of access to and from the first floor and ensured that a safe system of work was implemented. His failure to comply with his legal duty of care to those working on site led to the worker's fall that resulted in the fatal injuries.

Peter Wright had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a single charge of Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was fined £10,000 with £19,000 costs.

HSE inspector Yolande Burns-Sleightholme said after the hearing: "The failure by Mr Wright to comply with his legal duty of care to those working on site led to this worker suffering fatal injuries. The potential for this was always present.

"All employers need to ensure that risks from height are fully considered. HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those who fall so far below the required standards."