A company has been fined £15,000 after workers were spotted walking on stacked containers.

European Active Projects Ltd, based at Chatham Docks, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after the risks facing agency workers were captured on camera by an eagle-eyed member of the public.

The photos, taken in February last year, showed a man working on a stacked container some nine metres from the ground at one end, but directly above the water at the other end.

Despite the height, there was nothing in place to prevent a fall or to mitigate the effect of a fall from the edges of the containers.

Medway Magistrates’ Court heard the company, a marine and industrial contractor, had been erecting the containers in the days leading up to the incident to enable a client to run a simulated, offshore fire evacuation drill.

HSE’s investigation found a risk assessment and a method of working had been provided by the company but it has not been followed.

They had stated that each container would be secured by an operator working from a mobile boom and wearing a fall arrest harness.

However, the company failed to source a boom in time. Agency workers ended up using unfooted, unsecured ladders to access the containers. As they were still in motion while being landed, it made their work even more perilous.

"The dangers of falling, and quite possibly sustaining fatal injuries, were very real" - Health and Safety inspector

Only a month or so earlier, in December 2013, European Active Projects had received had been told to improve its safety after the HSE investigated an accident involving a lifting operation.

The company was fined a total of £15,000 with £917 in costs after admitting breaching the Work at Height Regulations and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Joanne Williams said: “The dangers of falling, and quite possibly sustaining fatal injuries, were very real and highlighted quite dramatically in the photos that were taken.

“The company had a plan but then totally ignored it as soon as it became clear a mobile boom couldn’t be sourced in time.

"It failed to provide any suitable measures to make sure the container structure could be erected safely and allowed dangerous practices to take place on site.

“European Active Projects’ failings were compounded by the lifting accident that had occurred recently and our advice should still have been ringing in their ears.”