A ROOFING firm has been fined after a worker was photographed using a jet washer on a roof with no safety measures in place.

Tyldesley-based firm IQ Roofing Solutions was brought before the courts after a member of the public photographed the worker, who was standing halfway down the sloping roof using a jet washer to clear moss and other debris, and alerted The Health and Safety Executive.

An HSE inspector visited the site the same day on June 6 last year and issued a prohibition notice, ordering the staff to come down until scaffolding or other safety measures had been introduced.

Boss Stuart Bell, managing director of the firm, had been at the site earlier that day and knew work would be carried out without scaffolding.

The firm, of Nelson Street in Tyldesley, had previously been served with a prohibition notice in 2011 following unsafe working practices.

Trafford Magistrates' Court heard the IQ Roofing Solutions was unable to provide proof that it held employers’ liability insurance — a legal requirement — which allows workers to claim compensation if they are injured at work.

The business pleaded guilty to two breaches of work at height regulations and to a breach of the employers’ liability act.

The company was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 court costs.

A fine of £1,000 was issued to Mr Bell along with £1,619 prosecution costs after he admitted two breaches of the work at height regulations.

Laura Moran, HSE inspector, said: “Falls from height are responsible for around a third of workplace deaths every year, with 25 people losing their lives in 2012 and 2013 alone. I’d therefore like to thank the member of the public who alerted us to the work, as they may well have prevented a serious injury.

“Both IQ Roofing Solutions and Stuart Bell put workers’ lives in danger by allowing them onto a slippery roof without safety measures in place. This meant that workers could have been badly injured if they had slipped and fallen to the ground below.

“If workers had been injured then they may not have been able to claim compensation as the firm also failed to provide us with any proof that it had employers’ liability insurance.”

Information about preventing workplace falls is available at www.hse.gov.uk/falls.