A renowned north-east butcher has been fined £60,000 for serious safety failings after a man’s death.
Latvian man Nikolajs Naumovs was clearing asbestos cement sheets with his nephew when the roof of a building in Fraserburgh collapsed.
Nephew Nikolajs Cernovs managed to cling on but could only watch as his 57-year-old uncle fell more than 16ft onto a concrete floor below and suffered fatal head injuries.
The tragedy happened at premises owned by Fraserburgh butchery firm Bruce of the Broch 1886 Ltd in the town’s College Bounds on August 21, 2009.
The company was fined £80,000, reduced to £60,000, after it admitted breaching Section three of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Peterhead Sheriff Court heard Mr Naumovs had only arrived in Scotland weeks before the incident, and was invited to work on the site following a misunderstanding between his nephew and the company’s managing director.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the men should not have been on the roof and that the company would have been able to intervene to stop the work if there had been more effective and regular supervision.
Following the case, HSE principal inspector Niall Miller said: “This tragic incident could have been avoided had the work been planned properly and carried out with the correct equipment.
“This type of work should ideally be undertaken without the need to directly access the roof, for example by using a mobile elevated working platform, or, if that is not possible, with safety measures to minimise the risk of falling such as crawling boards, fall arrest harnesses or netting.”
Mr Miller added that lack of training and instruction as well as a language barrier contributed to Mr Naumov’s death.
Bruce of the Broch manager Alistair Bruce was unavailable yesterday and the company declined to comment.