A FIRM has been fined more than £14,000 after a worker fell through a factory roof and suffered life changing injuries.

Haydock based Local Asbestos Services Ltd was one of two companies prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after an investigation found that they had allowed workers on to the roof of the building without proper safety measures in place.

Peter Tracey, 59, from Liverpool was part of a group of labourers hired by the company to remove asbestos sheets during demolition of the former factory in Cheshire.

Constructing Contracting from Leicestershire was overseeing the project as the principal contractor and the companies agreed that the sheets would be removed using a cherry picker or scissor lift from underneath.

This would have allowed workers to cut the bolts holding the sheets in place without the need for them to go onto the roof.

In a hearing at Liverpool Magistrates Court it was heard that despite this two men, including Mr Tracey, were allowed to climb onto the roof to remove the panels. No safety equipment was provided.

In April 2013 while removing a sheet it started to slip away. He grabbed it and stepped on to a clear plastic panel which gave way.

He fell 16ft onto a concrete floor suffering two collapsed lungs, blood in his left lung, fractures to his hip and ribs and a ruptured left shoulder tendon.

He was in hospital for a month and will be affected by his injuries for the rest of his life.

In a victim statement to support the HSE investigation he said: “I now struggle to do everyday things like going to the shops and have to rely on my daughter and sister to do my washing and clean my home.

“I always used to enjoy going to the park with my grandchildren and playing football with them but that has all stopped. I am missing out on them and it does upset me.”

Local Asbestos Services Ltd, of Salisbury Road in Haydock, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £6,191 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by failing to ensure the roof work was carried out safely.