Gregorz Sobko was fitting a solar panel to the roof of a cowshed when a clear plastic panel, designed to let in light, gave way. The 34-year-old from Southport fell five metres to the concrete floor below. He died in hospital 10 days later.
His employer, Eco Generation Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at Tower View Farm in Hutton on 15th November 2011 after an investigation found the company had failed to provide vital safety equipment.
Preston Crown Court heard that the company had been hired to fit solar panels to the flat roof on the cowshed, which was about 20 metres wide by 60 metres long.
Each worker had only been given a pair of scaffold boards to stand on to spread their weight while they worked, despite there being dozens of fragile plastic panels on the roof.
Mr Sobko had been fitting a solar panel just over a metre away from one of the fragile roof panels when he accidentally stepped on it and fell through the roof.
The HSE investigation found the company had installed netting under some of the panels but not under the one that Mr Sobko fell through.
Eco Generation Ltd, of Watkin Lane in Lostock Hall, was fined £45,000 and ordered to pay £20,515 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
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