A ROOFING firm has been fined after a worker was left paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair after he fell four metres through a hole in a roof.

Tego Roofing Ltd, of Monument Business Park, Chalgrove, was fined £10,000 and £9,640 in costs after pleading guilty at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to breaching construction regulations.

Giovanni Mastrodomenico, 56, from Swindon, fell through a waterproof membrane into an unguarded hole while working at Marlborough Park in Swindon on August 31, 2011. The Surrey-based principal contractor, Wates Construction Ltd, responsible for planning work during construction and ensuring there was a risk assessment in place, was fined £18,000 and £11,217 costs after pleading guilty to a separate breach of the regulations.

The Health and Safety Executive said Tego and Wates failed to provide adequate supervision or instruction to employees and that workers failed to identify the risk or warn others, including Mr Mastrodom-enico, of the hazard created by the removal of scaffolding boards covering the hole.