The safety of at-height working has been highlighted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an employee of City and County Signs, based in Bingham, Nottinghamshire, broke his neck. The company has been fined ￡10,000 plus costs of over ￡8,000.

The worker, who has not been named, fell around 1.5m from an elevated basket in November 2009 while removing a sign from a commercial property. He was away from work for nine weeks and was initially unable to undertake routine tasks or to drive, states the HSE.

The incident was caused when one of two levelling rods designed to keep the basket horizontal broke, resulting in the basket tipping backwards. An investigation by the HSE ascertained that City and County Signs had broken inspection laws.

"There is a legal requirement for all employers who use lifting equipment to ensure they have it thoroughly examined by a competent person every six months. Had the company done this the cracks in the levelling rod would have been identified and repaired and this incident avoided," says HSE inspector Lorna Sherlock. "Instead, a worker suffered some nasty injuries which could have easily been much worse."