A West Midlands building firm has been fined after twice being spotted carrying out unsafe roof work just days apart.

An employee of Chohan Builders (West Midlands) Ltd was seen working on the roof of a house in Quinton on 13 June this year, having used a poorly-built tower scaffold to access the roof.

A Prohibition Notice was served by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as the access to the scaffolding was unsafe and there was no bracing. The notice brought work on the site to a halt immediately and until the scaffolding was improved and edge protection or another suitable platform was used.

However, Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard on 12 December that just five days later, on 18 June, a worker was spotted on a sloping garage roof with, again, no control measures in place to prevent a fall.

A second Prohibition Notice was served on the firm.

Magistrates were told that although nobody was hurt at either location the fall risk was significant, and that allowing near-identical failings less than a week after the first unsafe practice was identified was wholly irresponsible.

Chohan Builders (West Midlands) Ltd, of West Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £981 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Gareth Langston said: “This company was issued with two Prohibition Notices for essentially the same thing less than a week apart. Luckily, no-one was hurt, but this kind of repeated behavior, which shows a willful ignorance of the dangers of working at height, has to be brought before the court.”

Work at height is the most frequent single cause of fatal incidents in the workplace in the UK and the second most common cause of serious injuries. For further information about working at height, visit the HSE website.