Now Philip Wolstenholme, owner A1 Access Scaffolding, is facing a crown court judge - after failing to ensure employee Scott Mitchell had completed the necessary training to legally and safely dismantle scaffolding.

Sheffield Magistrates' Court heard Mr Mitchell was trying to take down scaffolding from a house in Priory Road, Sharrow, Sheffield, when he plummeted six metres to the ground.

He had not been following the correct procedures and wasn't wearing a harness - and fractured two vertebrae and shattered his lower leg and heel.

Wolstenholme, aged 53, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety at work of his employees and breaching a prohibition order.
The court heard that, by dispatching Mr Mitchell and his colleague Tony Moore to carry out the job, he was contravening a prohibition notice imposed by a court following earlier health and safety breaches.
Rob Cooper, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said the notice - which prevented Wolstenholme from using any untrained scaffolders - had been imposed following two other incidents.

In November 2005 Wolstenholme provided a scaffold "flawed in the way it was built" and which had not been fixed to the wall of a house in Whiston, Rotherham.

The structure toppled over into the garden - causing the roofer to jump for his life. He suffered ankle injuries and post-traumatic stress and was off work for two months.

Wolstenholme, of Herringthorpe Lane, Rotherham, was slapped with an improvement notice but, when more scaffolding fitted to a business address in Rotherham was found to be unfit, a prohibition notice was served in March 2006.

The incident in Sheffield happened less than a year later, on January 12, 2007.

Mr Cooper said: "Scaffolders are in many ways highly trained individuals - they engage in high-risk work and industry standards provide training that minimises those risks.
"Without that training there is always a higher risk of someone falling, which is why training is key."
He added that without training Mr Mitchell "would not have known the difficulty he was faced with".

Wolstenholme will be sentenced next month at Sheffield Crown Court after magistrates decided they had insufficient powers to deal with him.

Defending, Toby Riley-Smith said Wolstenholme had recruited his staff on the back of references which he believed.
"He was a manager, not a scaffolder, and he thought the men he employed were experienced," he said.

He added Wolstenholme was in severe financial difficulty and now planned to sell his scaffolding business.


READ MORE
Main news index.
Your letters.
Today's features.
Latest sport.