A construction company has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £5,940 in costs after repeatedly ignoring safety warnings.
Unicorn Services Limited were in the process of building a four-storey block of flats when the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified multiple issues at the project site. In total, eight prohibition notices were subsequently served as a means to stop dangerous practices which breached the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations SI 2007/320.
The prohibition notices were served for issues relating to dangerous scaffolding, unsafe working at height, fire-related hazards and dangerous electrical equipment. The company had also supplied inadequate documentation for risk assessments and the HSE found, in a follow up inspection, that improvements had not been made.
An improvement notice was then issued which required the site manager to arrange training in order to safely manage construction operations, but the compliance date specified in the notice was not met.
HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said,"Unicorn Services Limited blatantly ignored enforcement notices and continued to neglect its duty of care to its workforce, most of whom were vulnerable migrant workers. The construction site at Sylvan Hill was a potential death trap, with scant regard for safety or employee welfare. Even though there were no reported incidents at the site, serious safety breaches were routinely committed that could have resulted in death or serious injury."
He added, "The work was underpinned by poor management and appallingly inadequate paperwork - total recklessness according to the court. General standards fell well below those expected of a competent principal contractor, which the HSE will simply not tolerate."
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