Firm’s £42,000 bill after builder fell on concrete

A BIRMINGHAM firm where a worker fell onto concrete while building new homes has been handed a court bill of almost £42,000.

The builder was discovered lying unconscious on the ground after falling through an open stairwell.

He had been working on the construction of eight new properties at the former site of The Greyhound Inn, in Lichfield, when he was seriously hurt.

Alba Construction (Midlands) Limited and boss of the company Bujar Cekrezi have since ended up in court over the incident. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was launched after the man was injured at the site in Upper St John Street on February 27 last year.

The firm had identified potential internal fails in their risk assessment process but failed to provide ‘suitable measures to prevent them’.

Three prohibition notices were served following the incident, preventing further work at height until steps had been taken.

Company director Bujar Cekrezi also failed to ensure ‘necessary’ health and safety measures had been implemented to ‘protect’ staff despite previous HSE interventions regarding work at height.

Measures such as birdcage scaffolding or fixed edge protection around stairwell openings could have been used to prevent the incident, the HSE said.

Alba Construction (Midlands) Limited, of Stoney Lane, Yardley, Birmingham, admitted breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Working at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £1,857.96 costs when the case was heard at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on February 27. Cekrezi, of Croydon Road, Birmingham, also admitted breaching Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

He was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,857.96 costs. HSE inspector Sinead Martin said: “This incident could have been prevented had the company properly planned the work at height and identified and implemented suitable control measures.”