News Article

HSE warns employers to ensure they comply with HSE enforcement notices following prosecution of company director


Posted by Chris Owen | Date Posted 19.11.2007 | Time Posted 08:25:00 | Views: 435

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has today warned employers that they must comply with enforcement notices or risk prosecution. The warning follows a HSE prosecution of a Burnley company director after he contravened a Prohibition Notice requiring him to implement a safe system for working at height.

Shaun Michael Cosgrove of Gorple Road, Worsthorne, Burnley, 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 etc Act 1974 and two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

During a site visit on 1 November 2005, HSE inspectors found Mr Cosgrove and three others working on the flat roof of his company’s premises at Computatune Car Sales Ltd in 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.”


Published in sections: Health and Safety ::

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