A COMPANY and an individual have been handed a hefty fined after a worker suffered life-changing injuries while dismantling an external platform lift at Alton College.

Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard on August 31, 2017, a worker was injured while working on an external lift shaft at the college on Old Odiham Road.

A heavy component of the lift toppled to the ground and he fell with it, suffering serious life-changing injuries that resulted in him being paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found The Platform Lift Company was contracted to dismantle an external lift shaft to enable building works to provide ramped access for wheelchair users.

The work was sub-contracted to Premier Lift Solutions, a company formed on August 1, 2017, and dissolved on November 17, 2020. At the time of the incident David Marcus was a director. Magistrates found on November 5 both companies had failed to put in place proper safety measures.

The Platform Lift Company, of Millside House, Anton Mill Road, Andover, pleaded guilty to breaching a single charge of section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and were fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,104.50.

Marcus, of Windsor Avenue, Whitehead, County Antrim, also pleaded guilty to two charges of Regulations 20(1) and 20(2) of Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 and was fined £480 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Dominic Goacher said: “Neither party adequately planned the work and failed to identify suitable measures such as scaffold to prevent falls. If a suitable safe system of work had been in place, the life changing injuries sustained by the employee could have been prevented.”