Three contractors have been fined after a roofer suffered life-changing injuries in a fall.

Jeremy Bishop, 46, from Romford was re-roofing a domestic property in Loughton, on January 5, 2010, when he fell from the scaffolding.

He suffered severe injuries to his head, chest and back and was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, where he spent three weeks in intensive care before being transferred to a specialist spinal injuries unit for eight months of intensive rehabilitation treatment.

He is now confined to a wheelchair.

Vincent Page, 46, and his firm, V. Page Building Services Ltd of Epping, were contracted to build an extension.The roofing was sub-contracted to Quality Roofs Ltd of Chingford and its director Alan Tyler, 64, and the scaffolding to Philip Blakeman, 58, (trading as Access Specialists) of Romford.

Harlow Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday how following the incident the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that intermediate guard rails hadn’t been installed along the back of the scaffolding and there was nothing in place to prevent falls from the gable ends of the house.

‘Life-changing’

Those involved had failed to ensure the necessary rails had been installed.

HSE Inspector Adam Hills said after the case: “The injuries Mr Bishop sustained were life-changing.

“He was in hospital for eight months, is still undergoing rehabilitation and will be in a wheelchair for the rest of this life.

“This could have been prevented if the companies and individuals had taken a few simple industry standard safety precautions by installing the guard rails as edge protection.

Page, of Stanford Rivers Road, Ongar admitted breaching Regulations 8(a) and 12(4) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. He was fined �20,000, with �8,000 costs.

Quality Roofs Ltd and Tyler, of Brook Gardens, Chingford, pleaded guilty to the same offences.

The company was fined �10,000 with �4,000 costs.

Tyler was fined �20,000 with costs of �4,000.

Philip Blakeman, trading as Access Specialists, of Queensway, Ongar, admitted breaching Regulation 8(a) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined �3,000 with costs of �2,000.