Public liability insurance customers have been warned about setting up scaffolding correctly after the prosecution of a firm, despite its workers attempting to lie their way out of it.
Bracknell Roofing of Suffolk Way, Kent, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of over £2,500 after it pleaded guilty to breaching rules of the Work at Height Regulations.
Skegness magistrates court heard how inspector Steve Woods stopped to investigate scaffolding at the Coach & Horses Inn in Lincolnshire, where no edge protection or adequate boarding was in use.
After questioning three employees of Bracknell Roofing, they refused to give the name of their manager and also gave false names and contact details.
"Falls from height remain the most common kind of workplace fatality. The men were at risk of serious injury either from falling off the roof or the tower scaffold," said Mr Woods.
Earlier this week, two construction firms had to pay out a total of £126,000 in a fatal scaffolding accident.
McAleer & Rushe of Northern Ireland and Lee Smith Carpentry of Hampshire were prosecuted after John Robinson was killed when he fell from 40-metres off scaffolding.