A BUILDING company must pay more than £200,000 after its health and safety failures led to the death of a much-loved 81-year-old York dad and grandad.

Kenneth Armitage died when he fell through a hole left by an employee of Cooper & Westgate in the floor of his first-floor bathroom, Leeds Crown Court heard.

His family has paid tribute to their "loving grandad". 

Judge Ray Singh told the court the Heworth company's procedures  had “serious and systematic failures in any jobs that were carried out in bathrooms of this nature on first floors.”

Cooper & Westgate had not carried out any risk assessment for the conversion of Mr Armitage's bathroom into a wet room and didn't recognise it as being a "work at height" procedure and therefore didn't include safety practices for "work at height". 

It had not taken into account that elderly people were more prone than younger people to slip and fall.

The employee had not been provided with safety equipment for the hole and had left it with a "makeshift barrier"  over the weekend in a room that Mr Armitage had to use because it contained the toilet.

The judge said that since Mr Armitage’s death the company had overhauled and reviewed their procedures and they now satisfied the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Leeds Crown Court heard that the company was carrying out a City of York Council funded conversion when its employee, working alone, created the hole and left it open when he departed at 3pm on Friday February 8, 2019. Mr Armitage’s body was found the next day.

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Cooper & Westgate, whose registered office is in Wakefield and has a depot in Heworth, denied failure to ensure the health and safety of Mr Armitage and failure to ensure the health and safety of its employee, but was convicted by a jury at Leeds Crown Court on what Judge Singh called “overwhelming evidence”.

It was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £50,000 towards the costs of the Health and Safety Executive which brought the case and a £15,000 statutory surcharge.

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Defence barrister Joseph Hart told the court the company had not done any local authority work since its conviction.

He said company management had been unaware of the hole because the employee working at Mr Armitage’s York home hadn’t told them about it and had not been sufficiently supervised.

The employee had left a barrier round the hole and had told Mr Armitage about it.

Mr Hart said the company had no previous convictions and had had none since. It has an annual turnover of £2 million and steady profits.

As he left court, its managing director Paul Cooper said: “I’m pleased matters have come to a conclusion and my condolences to Mr Armitage’s family.”

He said he had been disappointed by the outcome of the trial and declined to comment further.

HSE inspector Yolande Burns-Sleightholme said: “Employers need to fully assess and control the risks from holes in domestic properties and recognise the importance of securing them effectively. They should then pass this knowledge on to their employees through suitable training and guidance.

“This incident could so easily have been avoided had Cooper & Westgate properly assessed the risks, put in place safe working practices and provided the correct training to its employees.”