AN accident in which two men were seriously injured when they fell from a scaffolding platform will cost a co-operative workforce more than £6,000.

Gas Services Northern Limited was yesterday fined by magistrates after admitting breaches of health and safety guidelines.

The company was fined £5,000 for not providing a safe system of work and £1,000 for failing to prevent employees from falling.

The case, heard at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court, was brought after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into an accident on August 27 last year.

Two of the company's gas engineers were installing a heating system in the upper floors of a renovated building in Northgate, Darlington.

They had agreed builders would drill a hole in the building, ten metres up, for a heating flue to be fitted.

When he arrived on site, John Short,47, a director of the company, saw the hole had not yet been created so decided to do it himself.

He placed a ladder on top of a 6.3m scaffolding platform but the tower collapsed and he and a colleague, Jason Hamilton, 24, fell to the ground.

Mr Short fell on a parked car and suffered serious head, neck and throat injuries. Mr Hamilton sustained a broken leg and fractured back bones. Both are still recovering from their injuries.

Defence solicitor Kaiser Nazir said a financial penalty would greatly harm the company, which was formed as a co-operative by former British Gas employees facing redundancy in 1996.

Most of the original 11 directors had retired or left the company, and the remaining three directors would share responsibility for the fines.

Mr Kazir said: "It was not a purposeful flaunting of safety regulations, but rather a man with 25 years' experience making an unexplainable mistake."

The company, which is based in Eastmount Road, Darlington, was also ordered to pay £736.50 legal costs.