Keep up with Armagh i

Joiner fined £10,000 after householder falls through lift opening

A joiner has been fined £10,000 after a resident of Tandragee, Co Armagh, fell through a lift opening.

Coagh man Aidan Lavery, 37, from Battery Road, was fined at a sitting of Newry Crown Court for a charge brought against him by the Health and Safety Executive.

Mr Lavery was engaged in preparatory joinery work on a lift at a two storey house. He was asked to make an opening between the first and ground floors into which a domestic lift was to be installed.

He created the opening for the lift at the property on Friday, October 5 2012. The lift mechanism itself was to be installed the following Monday, but, that Sunday, the householder fell through the opening, some 2.6 metres, suffering severe back and limb injuries.

A fixed temporary cover should have been fitted to prevent people falling through the opening.

Anne Cassidy of HSENI’s Major Investigation Team, said: “A member of the public has suffered extensive life changing injuries which need not have happened if some very basic precautions had been taken.”

Sign Up To Our Newsletter

Most read today

NEWRY – SHOP LOCAL

More in News