Bow Tie Construction ladder fall: HSE findings and lessons for site engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
A High Wycombe contractor, Bow Tie Construction Limited, has been fined £24,000 plus £4,101 costs at Southwark Crown Court after a worker fell 1.65 metres from the top of a five‑foot stepladder while using a gas‑powered nail gun on temporary timber formwork for a new concrete staircase in an Islington refurbishment. The fall caused crush injuries to both elbows requiring multiple surgeries, a fractured forearm, dislocated wrists and leg and knee damage. HSE found no safe system of work for height, inadequate edge protection, incorrectly assembled tower scaffolds and uncontrolled ladder use, despite a prior prohibition notice one month earlier.
Technical Brief
- Temporary timber formwork was being installed for a new in‑situ concrete staircase between ground and first floors.
- Work was part of converting a domestic property and former handbag factory into a single dwelling, implying complex existing geometry and constrained access.
- Company director Rafael Delimata was acting site manager and personally instructed the three‑person team to build the formwork.
- HSE investigation identified systemic work‑at‑height failures: inadequate edge protection, mis‑assembled tower scaffolds and unprotected stair voids.
- A prohibition notice for height‑safety failings had been served on Bow Tie Construction only one month earlier, indicating prior regulatory intervention.
- Monitoring and remediation should include formal work‑at‑height risk assessments, scaffold inspection records and ladder‑use permits, with periodic HSE compliance audits.
- Breach was prosecuted under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, reinforcing statutory duties for safe systems of work at height on refurbishment sites.
Our Take
Within the 420 safety- and failure-tagged pieces in our database, UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) prosecutions like this one involving Bow Tie Construction Limited are a recurring theme, signalling that enforcement risk for even relatively low-height work-at-height incidents remains high.
The 1.65 m fall height sits in the range where many infrastructure cases in our coverage involve step ladders or short access equipment, underscoring that contractors in places like High Wycombe and Islington cannot treat ‘low’ work-at-height as routine or exempt from formal controls.
The long interval between the August 2021 incident and the February 2026 Southwark Crown Court hearing is consistent with other UK infrastructure safety cases in our database, meaning duty holders should factor multi‑year legal and reputational exposure into their risk and insurance planning when HSE becomes involved.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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