Southwark Crown Court heard how, on 16 February 2017, two operatives were dismantling a scaffold on Cricklewood Broadway, London.

During the process the scaffold collapsed resulting in one of the operatives falling at least five metres onto a concrete pavement, causing serious head injuries.

He later died from these injuries on 4 March 2017.

An HSE investigation found that Wembley Scaffolding Services Limited’s director, Sean Chapple, failed to carry out a suitable risk assessment, plan the work and provide a design for erection and dismantling of the scaffold.

Chapple himself was not knowledgeable about the measures required to do this without putting people at risk and therefore didn’t follow the correct measures to ensure safe erection and dismantling of the scaffold.

Wembley Scaffolding Services Limited of Watford, pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined £7,860 and ordered to pay costs of £8,940.

Director, Sean Chapple also pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined £1,000, received a 12 week prison sentence suspended for one year and was ordered to pay costs of £11,000.

After the hearing HSE inspector Saif Deen said: “This tragic incident led to the avoidable death of a young man.

“The case highlights the importance of following industry guidance in order to design and erect scaffolding in a safe manner, to prevent risk to workers using the scaffold.

“The death could have been prevented had the employer acted to identify and manage the risks involved, and to put a safe system of work in place.”