Manchester City Magistrates' Court was told that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out an unannounced inspection of the site in April 2015. It served a prohibition notice on Select Quality Homes after it found no or inadequate edge protection on several parts of the scaffolding.
When the HSE made a return visit to the site, the deficient scaffolding was still in place.
The executive said that if the company had carried out its duty to properly plan, manage and monitor the site, and subsequently followed advice given by the inspector, it could have addressed the inadequate scaffolding without the need for any formal enforcement action.
Select Quality Homes pleaded guilty to breaching reg 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations, for failing to take measures to prevent workers falling and sustaining an injury, and s 22 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, relating to the prohibition notice.
It was fined £6,600 and ordered to pay costs of nearly £647.
After the hearing HSE inspector David Argument said: "This could have been avoided if Select Quality Homes had taken simple steps to prevent people from falling, such as guard rails, mid rails and toe boards."
