A LABOURER could have died from a fall through a fragile roof on his first day working for a Monmouth firm, the Health and Safety Executive said.

The 36-year-old man from the town was carrying a solar panel when he fell and landed on the concrete floor below.

The Health and Safety Executive took D & R Maintenance Solutions Ltd and its managing director John Dunmore to court this week and it was told they did little to protect workers from falls.

D & R Maintenance Solutions Ltd of Cross Vane, Penallt, Monmouth, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £13,000 in Leamington Spa Magistrates Court.

John Dunmore, 54, of the same address, was fined £7,000 after admitting the breach of Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Both were ordered to pay £3,357 costs.

The victim, injured on February 24 2012, had to wear a brace for two months after fracturing two vertebrae in his back. He suffered a broken wrist, a bruised heel and missed six months of work. He is no longer employed in construction and has restricted movement in his wrist.

HSE inspector Luke Messenger said: “Considering he fell 4.5 metres, he was fortunate not to suffer more serious or even fatal injuries."

The supervision of new employees was inadequate, despite the risks from work at height being widely known.

“D & R Maintenance Solutions Limited, and John Dunmore had received relevant previous verbal and written advice from HSE regarding work on fragile roofs but failed to take basic precautions to prevent falls.”

The injured man and another colleague were working for the firm for the first time that day, but neither were given proper training for working at height. The HSE found equipment provided for accessing and working on the roof was not suitable.

Four employees were working unsafely using crawl boards without guardrails or harnesses, and at times stepping on the roof itself. No guardrails were in place around the roof perimeter and no measures to mitigate the consequences of a fall through the fragile roof were in use, such as fall arrest harnesses, netting, or soft landing systems.