Yahoo News Househunter fell 30ft down a well after estate agent failed to tell her about a hole in the garden
A househunter fell 30ft down a well and clung to a hosepipe for an hour after an estate agent failed to tell her about a hole in the garden, a court heard.
Lucy Driver and her husband James had gone to an open house viewing organised by agents Strakers on April 23 last year.
Mr and Mrs Driver had been encouraged by the agent at the house to have a good look round, a court heard.
As a result of the breach a number of people were exposed to very significant harm
Judge Simon Cooper
The agent remained inside the house while the Drivers walked to the bottom of the garden In Malmesbury, Wilts.
Mrs Driver took one step off the garden path onto a piece of board which collapsed and she fell 30 feet down the well, a court heard.
Strakers (Holdings) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to discharge a general health and safety duty to a person other than an employee. The firm was fined £200,000.
She was submerged in water at the bottom of the well but was able to stay afloat with the help of a hosepipe fed down to her by neighbours.
It was more than an hour before she was rescued from the well by the Fire Service.
An HSE investigation concluded that Strakers had failed to assess the risks to the public and that no health and safety management system had been in place.
HSE Inspector Matt Tyler told the judge that three days before the open house event Strakers had been informed by an earlier prospective buyer of the existence of the well under the piece of board yet no action had been taken.
He added that the house was part of the estate of a woman who had died and there was therefore no-one who knew the property well to ask about possible risks.
Strakers, he said, had no systems in place for risk assessment in the case of properties that were part of a deceased person's estate and serious risks such as asbestos or electrical safety could neither be identified nor controlled.
He said that when Strakers had been informed of the existence of the well, one of their employees, Tim Peters, had visited the house, looked at the wooden board and assumed that the well underneath would be covered by a metal grill.
Mr Peters did not lift the board to check for himself, Mr Tyler said.
Andrew McLaughlin, counsel representing Strakers, told the judge that the company was sorry Mrs Driver had fallen down the well and accepted that Mr Peter's inspection on April 19 should have been more thorough than it was.
He maintained, however, that the company's culpability for the incident was low.
Judge Simon Cooper said he found both Strakers' culpability and the risk of harm to be high.
He said: "As a result of the breach a number of people were exposed to very significant harm."
