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Roofer fined for failing to provide edge protection that led to serious injury
Cristina Lago Deputy Editor
The flat roof where the worker fell from did not have any edge protection (Image: HSE)
A roofer has been fined after a worker suffered serious injuries after falling from a flat roof that did not have any edge protection.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it was the second time Gary Smith, trading as GJ Smith Roofing, had failed to provide edge protection on a job.
On 15 December 2022, a team of roofers and labourers working on Smith's behalf were replacing a flat roof on a house in the Luton area.
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One of the workers was carrying large wooden boards across the roof when he inadvertently stepped off the edge, falling around three metres. He suffered a fractured vertebra in his back and a broken ankle.
The HSE investigation found the task had not been properly risk assessed and planned. Edge protection around the flat roof had not been put in place, despite it being reasonably practicable to do so.
Following the HSE intervention, edge protection was installed before work resumed.
Gary Smith of Watling Street, Dunstable, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined £2,125 and ordered to pay costs of £5,445 at a hearing at Luton & South Bedfordshire Magistrates' Court on 29 July 2025.
HSE inspector Tim Nicholson said: “Clearly Mr Smith hadn’t learnt from his previous failures. Sadly, this latest offence resulted in a man being seriously injured.
"What makes this incident even more frustrating is the fact that it could so easily have been avoided by properly planning the task and ensuring that suitable edge protection had been put in place prior to work starting."
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