A self employed contractor has been fined £20,000 in damages following the death of one of his employees.

Boyd Lamont, from Buckhaven in Fife, was fined after a man working for him on a site fell to his death through a warehouse roof.

Lamont pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of one of his employees after Thomas Sturrock, 32, fell through the roof of a Tullis Russell Papermaker warehouse in Markinch.

Tullis Russell has also been fined £260,000 following Mr Sturrock’s death in September 2008.

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In February last year the company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety At Work Act through failure to provide a safe system of working and leaving employees in danger of serious injury and death between 3 September and 29 September 2008.

The trial took place at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

The court heard how Mr Sturrock and a number of Lamont’s other employees were working at height to clean the fragile roof of the warehouse.

Mr Sturrock fell about 14.5m (47ft) through the roof to the concrete floor below, dying of his injuries at the scene.

Following a lengthy trial, Lamont pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of his employees.

He also pleaded guilty to failing to make "a suitable and sufficient assessment" of the risks to health and safety at the site, and of failing to provide his employees with equipment, training, supervision, instruction or a safe system of work for employees carrying out such work at height.

(IT)