A NORTH Wales building firm was yesterday fined £8,000 after a man plunged to his death. Robert McGowan was working on an old barn when he fell 9ft on January 22 last year. Glynceiriog firm TS Davies yesterday admitted a breach of health and safety regulations. The company, of Selattyn Road, was also ordered to pay £5,290 costs. Magistrates in Wrexham heard how 44-year-old Mr McGowan was working on scaffolding a rotten roof from a barn in Quarry Road, Glynceiriog. But the circumstances surrounding his death were sketchy as he was working alone when he fell. Workmate David Alan Turner returned - after being away for a just a few minutes -and found him lying dead surrounded by parts of the old roof. Tudor Williams, prosecuting, said the scaffolding around the building did not meet safety standards. There was no suitable inner handrail on the edge of the platform along the top of the wall to prevent a worker falling over it. There were also defects in other parts of the scaffolding and some of the upright tubes were not properly supported by base plates. The court heard how the two men erected the scaffolding but builder Kevin Davies climbed on to it and should have known it was not adequate. He later told police: "It seemed fine to me for the purposes of the job." When officers asked Mr Turner for his account of the accident he said: "He fell. But whether he was on the scaffold or on the wall, I don't know. "Maybe he tripped over the wall plate so I don't see how you can blame the scaffold." Mr Williams said there was no question of cost cutting being blamed for the faulty scaffolding. But he said the Health and Safety Executive took a serious view because almost half construction industry deaths resulted from falls from height. Timothy Edge, defending, said Davies had a small firm with only two regular employees and two self employed workers. _________________________ welshnews@dailypost.co.uk | 
