Weather Master Roofing Limited and its 20-year-old company director Jack Avanzo, also known as Jack Avenzo, were sentenced last week following a prosecution by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).
An HSE investigation found workers were seen operating without any scaffolding or edge protection on the roof of a house on Flint Hill, Dorking, on 21st February 2023. This put the workers at risk of falling from height, while there were also no measures to mitigate a fall. Workers were also observed using the lights from their phones and torches while working on the property at night.
The group were working under the control of Avanzo and his company.
HSE served Weather Master Roofing Limited with an improvement notice on 28th February 2023. The notice required the company to improve how it planned, carried out, supervised and monitored the work that was taking place on the roof.
But the company failed to comply with the notice.
During a sentencing hearing at Brighton Magistrates’ Court last week, Weather Master Roofing Limited, of Muswell Hill, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, Section 33(1)(c) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in costs as well as a victim surcharge of £1,600.
Jack Avanzo, of Ballyspillane, Killarney, Republic of Ireland, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, Section 33(1)(c) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
He was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and disqualified from being a director for three years. He was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.
HSE inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said: “Falls from height are still the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. The law is clear – suitable and sufficient measures must be taken to prevent, where reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury. Support and practical guidance on how to comply with the law is publicly available, free of charge. There is no excuse for putting workers lives at risk.”
