Two building firm directors have been jailed after being found guilty of safety offences which saw a worker killed in roof plunge hours after a colleague was badly hurt in a similar fall.
The incidents occurred in January 2014 when Building and Dismantling Contractors were subcontracted by main contractor C Smith & Sons to demolish the Harveys and Carpetright buildings in Heaton Norris, Stockport.
Allan Thomson, head of Building and Dismantling Contractors Ltd, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter after at Manchester Crown Court and was sentenced to six years in prison and his company was fined £400,000.
He was also banned from holding the position of company director for two years and must pay £55,000 costs.
Michael Smith, boss of Rochdale-based C Smith & Sons, was found guilty of failing to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment, failing to ensure work is planned, regulated and monitored in a way which ensures it is carried out without risks to safety and failing to ensure work at height is properly planned, adequately supervised and safely carried out.
He was jailed for eight months and fined £90,000.
“Smith and Thomson’s remorse did not then stretch to admitting their guilt, as both tried to hide behind their companies and refused to plead guilty to the charges levelled against them personally.”
Detective chief inspector Richard Eales, Greater Manchester Police
The court heard it was originally planned that machinery would be used to remotely bring down the structure – a method that would have entailed minimum risk to those workmen involved with the demolition.
However, between winning the contract and the work actually being carried out, the decision was taken by Smith that the building should instead be dismantled piece by piece, meaning workmen would be required to work at height to remove the roof sheets prior to the structure being unbolted.
C Smith & Sons then subcontracted the job of demolishing the roof to Building and Dismantling Contractors.
The roof of the building had been made up of steel corrugated sheets with interspersed plastic skylights, which had deteriorated over time and had subsequently been covered with corrugated steel sheets in a bid to repair the damage.
On Tuesday 21 January 2014, a 47-year-old man fell through a skylight to the concrete floor below, fracturing his spine, pelvis, right leg, heel and wrist.
Despite this incident the men were ordered to return to the roof just hours later and at 4pm Scott Harrower fell through a skylight to the concrete below. He suffered major head injuries and died as a result.
On 20 January 2014, there had been a near miss incident when Harrower accidentally stepped through a skylight and nearly fell the 30 feet to the concrete floor below. On that occasion he managed to prevent himself from falling, but the near miss did not delay work and men returned to carry out the dismantling the following day.
In a statement detective chief inspector Richard Eales of Greater Manchester Police said: “It is clear from the evidence that both Smith and Thomson saw an opportunity to make a quick profit without any thought for the workers they sent on to the roof, and as a direct result of that greed Scott died and another man suffered life-changing injuries.
“Smith and Thomson’s remorse did not then stretch to admitting their guilt, as both tried to hide behind their companies and refused to plead guilty to the charges levelled against them personally.”
