Lima Construction Limited has been fined £50,000 after a worker fell to his death through an unprotected window opening from an external scaffold platform at a redevelopment site in New Malden.
Antonio Rodrigues, 55, was working as a labourer for Lima Construction, the principal contractor on the conversion of a former department store on New Malden High Street into commercial and residential units.
On 27 July 2022, Mr Rodrigues fell through an unglazed opening intended for a Juliet door. He landed on a concrete ground floor more than 3m below.
He was taken to hospital but died from his injuries on 1 August 2022.
The Health and Safety Executive found that four window openings had been created for glazed Juliet doors. Some of the doors arrived with damaged glazing panels and were not installed.
Lima Construction had identified the openings as a fall risk for workers using the scaffold platform. Yet protective boarding was only fitted in the hours after Mr Rodrigues’ fall.
HSE said the risk could have been controlled as soon as the openings were created, either by boarding them over or installing additional internal scaffold guard rails.
The investigation also found that legally required weekly scaffold inspections had not been carried out after 5 July 2022. That removed an opportunity for a competent scaffold inspector to identify the danger created by the unglazed openings.
Lima Construction Limited, of Apsley Road, New Malden, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £11,347 in costs at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 June 2026.
HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said the company had generally tried to maintain good health and safety standards but had failed to respond effectively when the damaged doors created an unusual site condition.
He said: “As there was no CCTV and nobody witnessed the incident, we will never know exactly what caused Mr Rodrigues to fall.
“But if the boards added shortly afterwards had been in place, then there would have been no opening for him to fall through in the first place.”
The case is a reminder for scaffold contractors, principal contractors and inspectors that changes to building openings can create immediate fall hazards. Where glazing, doors or other permanent protection is delayed, the opening needs to be secured before workers are exposed to it.
