Stoke-on-Trent office block fall death firms fined £750,000

The incident happened in February 2021 at Palmyra House, Palmyra Square in Warrington

Three companies have been fined a total of £750,000 after a worker was fatally injured in a fall from a building.

Dennis Vincent fell from the roof in Warrington while he and another worker were installing a lightning protection system to the office block.

Mr Vincent, 36 and from Stoke-on-Trent, died in 2021, at Palmyra House, which was being turned into flats.

The firms were all convicted in a case brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

His employer had previously admitted breaching health and safety rules, while two other firms found guilty of breaking regulations, the HSE confirmed.

Frame detached

On 24 February 2021, father-of-one Mr Vincent was lowering access equipment from the roof, using a rope attached to a frame at roof level and a handrail at ground level.

However, as he did so, the frame became detached and it and he fell to the ground below.

In February, his employer PTSG Electrical Services Limited of Castleford, West Yorkshire, was fined £120,000 after it failed to adequately assess the risks associated with working at height, said the HSE.

On Thursday at Liverpool Crown Court, Inco Contracts Limited (ICL), of Dunston near Stafford, was fined £600,000 and Prestige Security Installations Limited (PSIL) of Great Sankey, Warrington was ordered to pay £30,000.

'Significant failings'

ICL was the project's principal contractor, and PSIL was the contractor in control of the electrical installation, said the HSE.

Both failed to ensure the lightning protection work was properly planned and failed in their duties to manage and monitor the work to ensure it was carried out safely, it added.

Due consideration had not been given to safer methods of working at height, such as scaffolding or a mobile elevated platform, and the workers had been given no instruction or safe means of getting their equipment down from the roof.

Mr Vincent, a husband and father, did not return home because of the "significant failings of these three companies," said HSE inspector Sara Andrews.