A CLEANING firm has paid out more than £60,000 for safety failings after an employee suffered life-changing injuries when he plunged six metres through a fragile rooflight.

The 36-year-old, from Goring, was one of a small team sent by Cleansafe Services of Surrey to carry out a contract-clean of 24 acrylic rooflights at a car rental premises in Eastbourne.

The worker, who does not wish to be named, was on the roof when he inadvertently stepped on to one of the rooflights.

The acrylic gave way, sending him falling through to the concrete floor below.

The fall left him with a complex skull fracture and brain damage, arm and wrist fractures and broken ribs.

He was in hospital for nearly two months, part of the time in an induced coma, and has now lost his sense of smell and taste, has impaired sight in one eye and is deaf in one ear. He is unable to work.

The incident, on December 11, 2013, investigated by the Health and Safety Executive, led to a prosecution against the company.

After appearing at Eastbourne Magistrates’ Court today, Cleansafe Services (UK) Ltd of Progress Way Business Park, Croydon, Surrey, was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £5,741 in costs after pleading guilty to three breaches of the Work at Height Regulations.

The court heard that safety precautions taken by the company were “grossly inadequate”.