Workplace Report February 2005

Features: Health & safety - HSE monitor

Company director jailed following roof fatality

A managing director was jailed for 16 months in January following a worker's fatal fall from a roof.

Lee Harper pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and a breach of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The prosecution was brought after the death of Daryl Arnold on 11 June 2003. Arnold and others had been employed by Harper to remove and replace a warehouse roof. No safe system of work had been prepared, and no safety precautions were in place at the time of the incident. Arnold had never worked on a roof before.