Warning as firm boss is fined £1,500

5:18pm Saturday 17th November 2007

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EMPLOYERS have been warned after an East Lancashire company director was fined by magistrates.

Shaun Michael Cosgrove, of Gorple Road, Worsthorne, was fined a total of £1,500 and ordered to pay costs of £3,500 at Reedley Magistrates' Court, after pleading guilty to one breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations Act 2005.

During a site visit on November 1 2005, HSE inspectors found Mr Cosgrove and three others working on the flat roof of his company's premises at Computatune Car Sales Ltd, North Valley Road, Colne, without a safe system of work in place.

He was issued with a Prohibition Notice requiring him to stop all work immediately.

HSE Inspector Phil Strickland said: "Mr Cosgrove is a director of the company and was among a group of men carrying out work at a height in an unsafe manner.

"There was no edge protection, no means of preventing objects falling from the roof and no segregation from members of the public who could have been hit by falling materials.

"Because of this, HSE served a Prohibition Notice requiring proper precautions to be implemented but Mr Cosgrove failed to comply with the notice, putting himself and his colleagues, plus members of the public at sustained risk."