A builder has been jailed after a worker died a week after falling from a roof at a site in Neasden.

Patrick McCarthy, 37, trading as All Care Home Improvements based in Pasture Road, Wembley, was sentenced to 14 months in prison at Harrow Crown Court on April 4 after a worker was killed following McCarthy's failure to follow building regulations.

Andrei-Ional Hutanu fell 16 feet onto concrete, fracturing his neck and causing head injuries in August 2019.

No scaffolding or other measures had been put in place to prevent falls.

The court heard how 33-year-old Mr Hutanu and another man were working at the back of commercial premises in Neasden.

While his co-worker had been instructed to remove building materials from a flat roof, Mr Hutanu had been instructed to carry out repair work on a tiled pitched roof.

He was working on it from a roofing ladder when he fell approximately 16-feet onto a concrete alleyway below.

He fractured his neck and sustained other serious head injuries in the fall and despite being taken by air ambulance to St Marys Hospital in Paddington, he died a week later, on August 26, 2019.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found McCarthy, a roofer by trade, had failed to take any steps to prevent falls from height by failing to install scaffolding around the perimeter of the building or flat roof where both men were working.

Patrick McCarthy, of Bashley Road, Park Royal, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. 

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Philip Jordan said: “This tragic incident could have been easily avoided. Assessing and planning work at height is essential to ensuring that suitable and sufficient measures are in place to prevent falls from height.

“The custodial sentence imposed on Mr McCarthy should underline to everyone in the construction industry that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously.

"HSE will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against individuals or companies that fall below the required standards.”