A construction worker died after a three-metre fall from scaffolding during a project to transform a former department store
A 55-year-old labourer died after falling three metres from scaffolding at a South West London building site, with the company behind the project fined £50,000. On July 27, 2022 Antonio Rodrigues, 55, fell three metres from a scaffolding platform onto the concrete ground at the site in New Malden.
He was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries five days later on August 1. Mr Rodrigues had been working for Lima Construction Limited on a project to turn on a former department store in New Malden High Street into a mixture of commercial and residential units.
An investigation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found he had fallen through an unglazed window void. These had been created so glazed ‘Juliet’ doors could be installed.
However, when the doors were delivered it was found some had damaged glazing panels so were not installed. Although the company recognised that the four unglazed window voids created a risk to workers on the scaffolding platform – falling from height through the voids – it was only in the hours after Mr Rodrigues fell that protective boarding was installed.
Investigators said boarding or additional scaffolding rails should have been put up over these voids to prevent the risk of falling from height as soon as they had been created. Legally required weekly scaffolding inspections had also not been carried out in the three weeks before the fatal accident, so the opportunity to identify the risks posed by unglazed window voids was lost, the HSE found.
Lima Construction Limited, of Apsley Road, New Malden, pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 13(1) of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. It was fined £50k and ordered to pay costs of £11,347 at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18 2026.
HSE inspector Andrew Verrall-Withers said: “This is a case where a company who generally tried to have good standards of health and safety, failed to react effectively to an unusual situation and there were tragic consequences. Falls from height are one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries in the UK. Employers and those in control of any work at height activity should ensure a sensible, pragmatic approach when considering precautions for work at height.
“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.”
Looking for more from MyLondon? Subscribe to our daily newsletters here for the latest and greatest updates from across London.
