Firm fined £60,000 for handyman’s fall from roof

A BIRMINGHAM company has been fined £60,000 after a handyman suffered multiple injuries in a horrific fall from its warehouse roof.

Jamieel Ahmed was left in a coma for a week after the accident, which happened as he carried out repairs at K Charles and Co in Erdington.

Birmingham magistrates heard he lost his footing on the roof and plunged 12ft to the ground. He survived, but suffered serious injuries, including fence spikes cutting his hand, a broken arm, leg, knee, two fractures to his spine and a crushed liver.

He was in hospital for three weeks and a coma for a week, but has since returned to work.

Family-run K Charles and Co, a catering wholesale warehouse, pleaded guilty to a health and safety charge.

Gareth Langston, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said the accident happened on April 24 when Mr Ahmed was repairing the roof.

He said Mr Ahmed used to work for the company as a full-time employee, but had left and was then employed on a casual basis as its handyman.

On the day of the accident he was working on the edge of the roof by the gutter, using a heat-gun to seal some felt.

“There should have been something to prevent him falling into the courtyard or through the glass skylight, such as scaffolding, but there was nothing,” Mr Langston said.

The court heard how the owners’ son heard a scream and rushed out and found Mr Ahmed had fallen about four metres into the courtyard, narrowly missing some railings.

“From the height he fell, he was lucky to survive,” Mr Langston said.

Ian Bridge, defending, said the company did not accept the extent of Mr Ahmed’s injuries and disputed his version of events.

He said there was scaffolding inside the warehouse for Mr Ahmed to use, but he chose not to.

But he said the company pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and was also in the process of arranging financial compensation for him through its insurers.

He said although the company had been trading for 39 years, the cost of maintaining its building was high. It had a turnover of £2 million in 2015, but only posted a net profit of £684.

District Judge Khalid Qureshi fined the company £60,000 with £1,129 costs. He criticised the way the firm had dealt with Mr Ahmed and said: “This smacks of amateurism, for a company which has been run as well as this for nearly 40 years, the court is disappointed with the way it dealt with Mr Ahmed and failed to put safety measures in place.”