A north-east building firm has been fined thousands of pounds after admitting serious health and safety breaches which left a worker seriously injured.
John Wilson, from Aberdeen, was knocked out, broke his left ankle, damaged the ligaments in his right ankle and suffered head injuries when scaffolding he was dismantling collapsed in July 2012.
The incident kept the then 46-year-old was out of work for 11 weeks, while his wife was pregnant with the couple’s second son.
The incident was subsequently investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Mr Wilson’s employer Rae Brown & Company Ltd was prosecuted for health and safety breaches.
The firm – which admitted the failings at an earlier hearing – appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday to be sentenced, and was fined £4,000.
Speaking after the sentence, Mr Wilson – who still works as a plasterer in Aberdeen – said he had tried to put the incident behind him.
The Mastrick man said: “At the time of the accident my wife was pregnant with our second son – it was a particularly difficult time.
“I was told quite a while ago they were going to plead guilty, there was no way of getting away from it.
“I’m happy that it’s over, and I’ve been away from the company for a couple of years now.”
The court heard that on July 24, 2012, Mr Wilson and an apprentice were asked to carry out work at a farmhouse in Oyne, not far from Insch, owned by the partner of one of the company’s directors.
The pair had to dismantle two scaffolding towers that had been erected in a narrow space between the farmhouse and a garden wall.
As Mr Wilson took apart the structure, it was left unstable and the metal board he was standing on moved and fell, taking Mr Wilson with it.
The HSE investigation found that neither man had received any formal training in the type of scaffolding they were working with.