Roofing Boss Jailed After Builder Falls to Death

A roofing company boss has been sentenced to jail after one of his builders fell 30ft to his death whilst working on a £7 million home in Kensington.

The owner of G&L Scaffolding and Roofing, Kevin Leathers, 41, had “flagrantly ignored” safety warnings when father-of-five Jon Currie, 36, was not wearing a harness when he fell, leading to “catastrophic brain damage” and ultimately his death in July 2017.

The experienced scaffolder lost his footing while taking down a temporary roof of corrugated iron panels. Leather pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees and was eventually jailed for eight months, having been previously warned about his employees working in dangerous conditions.

Prosecutors stated that Leathers had been sent a letter reminding him of strict health and safety requirements and that his working practices were “unsafe” when his crew were spotted working without safety harnesses. When Mr Currie fell, he and another worker were again not wearing safety harnesses and no risk assessment had been carried out to identify potential dangers. Curries was also not qualified for the job that he was doing that day. Prosecutor stated that Leathers “failed to exercise his duty of care and as a result, Jon Currie died while working for him. Leathers intentionally breached or flagrantly ignored the law.”

Passing sentence, Judge Joanna QC said “after the letter in April, Leather could not have been warned in clearer terms about the dangers of the activities undertaken. He failed to take appropriate steps. If death results from such failures you must expect to receive an immediate prisons sentence.”

Leather was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence after Curries fell working on an extension to a double-storey basement.

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