The father of one sustained the injuries after he fell through a barn roof at Dodwell Farm in Bursledon, a village near Southampton.
The incident took place on 9 February 2023, when the man had been helping his friend repair a storage barn that had suffered fire damage.
While working on the roof the timber gave way under his weight and he fell 10 metres onto a hard surface. The man suffered severe injuries as a result of the fall that left him in hospital for an extended period.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that safety measures such as barriers, netting or access equipment were not in place, and that Dodwell Farm had failed to take appropriate precautions to ensure the safety of workers and others when replacing the barn roof.
Subsequently, Dodwell Farm Limited of Bursledon pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
The company was fined £133,000 and ordered to pay £8,816 costs, as well as a £2,000 surcharge during a hearing at Southampton Magistrates Court on 3 January 2025.
“Too many workers are injured and killed every year as a result of falling from height,” HSE inspector Nicola Pinckney said after the hearing.
“The sentence imposed on Dodwell Farm Limited should underline to everyone who carries out work at height that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously.
“Measures to prevent the accident, such as avoiding working from the roof, protecting fragile surfaces and having netting in place, are well known and readily available.
“HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”
This HSE prosecution was brought by enforcement lawyer Iain Jordan and paralegal Helen Jacob.
