![The lifting gear was untested and unsuitable [Photo from HSE]](/assets/news_articles/2025/12/1765264138_hse-image-of-unsuitable-and-untested-lifting-accessory.png)
A general labourer working for Premier Property & Construction Limited on a project managed by Axis Europe Limited was injured in a fall at a site at Cathcart Hill, London on 15th April 2024.
During an unplanned lifting operation, the load became trapped. When the worker attempted to free it, the released load caused him to be pulled over the edge of the scaffold.
An investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) found that Premier Property and Construction Limited failed to adequately plan, manage and monitor the work, particularly regarding routine lifting operations and the use of appropriate lifting equipment and accessories.
HSE also found that Axis Europe failed to properly manage and monitor the works being carried out by Premier Property & Construction on its site. The principal contractor did not recognise insufficient detail on lifting operations and did not adequately challenge or prevent the use of untested lifting accessories on site, the HSE said.
Axis Europe Limited, of Tramway Avenue, London, pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It was fined £640,000 and ordered to pay £4,787.59 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on 5th December 2025.
Premier Property & Construction Limited, of London Road, Sevenoaks – trading from Thames Industrial Park in East Tilbury – pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 15(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It was fined £160,000 and ordered to pay £4,787.59 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge at the same hearing.
HSE inspector Andrew Pipe said after the hearing: "Every year, a significant proportion of construction-related accidents, many of them serious and sometimes fatal, occur as a result of inadequately planned, managed or monitored work. This was a wholly avoidable incident. Had both companies taken appropriate measures to ensure workers' health and safety, the life-changing injuries would not have occurred."
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