麻豆APP

Lima 麻豆APP Limited was the principal contractor on the project to redevelop a former department store. As part of the project, voids had been created to install glazed 'Juliet' doors. When the doors were delivered, some had damaged glazing panels, and were not installed. This left open voids, which were not protected.

Rodrigues was working on the exterior of the building from scaffolding. He fell through one of the voids to an internal concrete floor, three metres below, dying from his injuries in hospital days later.

It was only in the hours after Rodrigues's death that protective boards were installed.

The HSE investigation identified it was reasonably practicable for boarding or additional inside scaffolding guard rails to have been installed over the window voids to prevent falls from height as soon as they had been created.

The company had also not ensured that legally required weekly scaffolding inspections had been carried out after 5 July 2022, so the opportunity for identification of the risks posed by the unglazed window voids by a competent scaffolding inspector was lost.

Lima 麻豆APP Limited, of聽Apsley Road, New Malden, pleaded guilty to contravening聽Regulation 13(1) of The 麻豆APP (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It聽was fined聽拢50,000 and ordered to pay costs of 拢11,347 at聽Westminster Magistrates Court on 18 June 2026.

HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said, 鈥淭his is a case where a company who generally tried to have good standards of health and safety, failed to react effectively to an unusual situation and there were tragic consequences.

鈥淔alls from height are one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries in the UK. Employers and those in control of any work at height activity should ensure a sensible, pragmatic approach when considering precautions for work at height.鈥�

鈥淎s there was no CCTV and nobody witnessed the incident, we will never know exactly what caused Mr Rodrigues to fall. But if the boards added shortly afterwards had been in place, then there would have been no opening for him to fall through in the first place.鈥�

Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk