Company Fined After Worker Left Physically Ruined Following Fall From Height

A principal contractor pleaded guilty after a contractor fell from a tipping bucket on a forklift in March 2023 and required months of hospital care. The Health and Safety Executive found failures in contractor management, equipment training and supervision, resulting in a £90,000 fine and costs.

On 28 March 2023 a contractor working for South East Refurbishment Limited fell from a raised tipping bucket on a forklift at the EMIR site on Wotton Road in Ashford while dismantling pipework. The worker, Aaron Back, then 38, spent months in hospital and has suffered severe ongoing injuries. HSE investigated and found a scissor lift had been ordered for the task but was too tall for the area so a forklift was used instead. South East Refurbishment Limited pleaded guilty to an offence under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,241 at Margate Magistrates Court on 7 July 2026.

HSE found there were no suitable arrangements to manage contractors on the site and no steps taken to require a different safe system of work. The company provided equipment to a labour only subcontractor but did not provide training for the forklift or scissor lift for the contractor or his subcontractor, did not restrict access to that equipment to trained operatives and did not provide adequate site supervision. HSE noted it had provided relevant advice and enforcement to the company since 2013 about contractor control and unsafe work at height. Falls from height remain the leading cause of workplace death and injury in Great Britain, accounting for over a quarter of work related deaths in 2025 26, and the construction sector records the greatest number of worker fatalities each year; HSE reported 31 deaths from falls from height in the past year.

For health and safety professionals the case reinforces the need to manage contractors, to plan work at height so the right equipment can be used, and to ensure operators are trained and supervised. HSE guidance requires employers to make sure work at height is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people. The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Chloe Ward with assistance from paralegal Jason Dix.

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