The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) was alerted to the possible lack of employers’ liability insurance when it received a complaint about scaffolding erected by Abacus Scaffolding North West Ltd at a site in Thornton Cleveleys in October 2013.
The company was contacted by the HSE on several occasions up until April 2014 but it still failed to provide a copy of the legally-required insurance certificate, which allows workers to claim compensation if they are injured while at work.
Abacus Scaffolding was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £2,035 following a trial at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court on 8 October 2014. The company failed to attend the hearing and was found guilty of a breach of the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 in its absence.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Allen Shute said: “Falls from height are responsible for around a third of all workplace deaths every year, so the risks to Abacus’s employees were real.”
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