Roofing company and director sentenced after 'putting workers lives at risk'

A roofing company has been fined and its director sentenced to a suspended prison sentence after health and safety failures put their workers’ lives at risk.

Weather Master Roofing Limited were carrying out a roof renovation at a property in Dorking, Surrey on 21 February 2023 when they were observed breaching health and safety law. Workers operated without any scaffolding or edge protection whilst on the roof of a house on Flint Hill. They had no measures in place to mitigate a fall from height, nor did they use any harnesses.

Works also continued into the night, as workers were observed using torches and phone-app torches for light. These workers operated under the control of the company’s director, Jack Avanzo (20).

Acting on these reports, HSE served Weather Master Roofing Limited with an Improvement Notice on 28 February 2023. This notice required the company to provide evidence of how it would safely plan, carry out, supervise and monitor the roof works.

Weather Master Roofing Limited failed to comply with the notice, and subsequently were charged with breaches of Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, Section 33(1)(c) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company pleaded guilty to these charges at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 2 December 2024. They were fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 in costs and £1,600 for a victim surcharge.

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Company Director Jack Avanzo was charged with the same offences. He also pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to six-months in prison, suspended for two years. Mr Avanzo was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and disqualified from being a director for three years. He was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.

HSE Inspector Stephanie Hickford-Smith said:

“Falls from height are still the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. The law is clear – suitable and sufficient measures must be taken to prevent, where reasonably practicable, any person falling a distance liable to cause personal injury.

“Support and practical guidance on how to comply with the law is publicly available, free of charge. There is no excuse for putting workers lives at risk.”