AN Oswaldtwistle business has been fined £4,000 after being told an employee could have been killed when he fell 12 feet while working on a roof.

Gwyn Abbott pleaded guilty on behalf of Joseph Metcalf Ltd, Fertilizer Manufacturers, in his capacity as operations director to two separate charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

The company was charged with failing to provide a suitable and efficient risk assessment and failing to provide suitable and effective measures to prevent its employees from falling.

A hearing at Hyndburn magistrates heard yesterday that on December 7, 2000, Dave Gill, an employee at the Brookside Lane factory fell 12 feet as he tried to retrieve a component he had dropped while inspecting a conveyer belt which had broken two days earlier.

Mr Gill and another employee had been on the same roof on December 5 to disconnect the electricity supply to the same belt.

Mark Long, prosecuting, said the company should have carried out a risk assessment on that area of the factory. If they had, they would have identified the need to provide a safe access across the roof, a safe working platform and protection along the edge to stop people from falling off.

Mr Gill damaged his left knee in the fall and suffered severe bruising to his left side, but has now regained fitness and is back at work.

Mr Long said: "He could have suffered fatal injuries with this fall." But he added: "The company has cooperated fully with the investigation, entered an early guilty plea and, since the accident, has installed a safe working platform, safe access and implemented a system of risk assessment."

Sefton Kwaswik, defending, said the company offered a "total and unreserved apology to all parties concerned" and that it was a matter of deep regret and shame that it found itself in.

He added: "It was an error of judgment which occurred in an area of the plant that is not used for its core business, so is not a frequently visited location."

Summing up, the magistrate said that this was an oversight rather than a deliberate omission by the company. Joseph Metcalf Ltd was fined £2,000 for each charge plus £1274 costs.