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A company has been fined £300,000 on Tuesday after an employee fell from a roof in Edinburgh.
The incident took place in Redford Gardens on May 16, 2023, and the company, Bell Group Limited, failed to ensure that work at height was properly planned, supervised and carried out in a safe manner.
Employee Scott Harvey, 51 at the time, was working at the property. He got onto the roof by ladders to replace a missing roof tile. The roof ladder became detached and he fell five metres.
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Mr Harvey had joined the company in January 2023 as a general handyman. He had not undertaken any work at height training since joining the company. The company was undertaking work to vacant military quarters in advance of them being occupied.
Mr Harvey had no specific jobs to do but was aware the tile required to be replaced. Alongside a colleague, he accessed an extension ladder and a roof ladder that were available to any employee who required them.
They wedged the extension ladder under the gutter, and neither employee was aware the safer method was for it to extend one metre beyond the gutter.
Mr Harvey sustained extensive right-sided thoracic injuries with fractures to the first to ninth ribs, pulmonary lacerations and a small pneumothorax. He suffered a fractured bone in his spine and fractures of the clavicle and scapula. He received treatment in the intensive care unit, the high dependency unit and the major trauma ward of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
He has received outpatient treatment from physiotherapy, speech and language therapy for compromised ability to swallow, and psychiatric assistance. His lifestyle was significantly impacted by his injuries.
The company accepts they failed to ensure there was a safe system of work properly implemented in accordance with regulation 4 of the Work at Height Regulations.
On sentencing Sheriff Watson said: "There is no sentence I can pass that will reflect the harm caused to Mr Harvey. I offer him my sympathy. The purpose of this case is not to put a value on his injuries. That is not what the court is doing.
"Instead the court is holding the company to account for its failings and hopefully ensuring that lessons have been learnt which may avoid anything of this nature happening again. In circumstances where injury has resulted from a breach of health and safety requirements by a company employer, the only penalty which the court can impose is a monetary fine.
"First, the company has no previous convictions. Secondly, the company has a highly developed approach to health and safety. I have had regard to the company strategy and the policies provided.
"The company has been awarded a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents gold award in 2024 and 2025.
"Thirdly, this should be treated as an isolated occurrence. I accept that this case relates to this one task. I note that Mr Harvey had joined the company by way of a TUPE transfer. The company had not completed the training he ought to have received, including work at height training.
"Turning to harm, the outcome was severe injury to Mr Harvey, with significant consequences for him. I have not been given detail of his current functioning but I do note that this has had a significant impact on him and it is not hard to understand why.
"In respect of this indictment I will therefore impose a fine of £300,000. In addition there will be a victim surcharge. That is the sum which the company will pay as the fine in this case. It is a figure which, I am sure, will remind the company’s directors and shareholders of the gravity of this offence. But I must stress that this is not, and could never be, a figure which in some way represents the impact on Mr Harvey, who has my every sympathy."
