ONE of Britain's biggest companies has been fined following an accident when a worker plunged 40ft through a cooling tower.

Steelmaker Corus Group was fined £15,000 at Guisborough Magistrates' Court on Monday. The company was also ordered to pay £936 costs.

A second company, Plettac NSG, was also fined £15,000 and £936 costs.

Both pleaded guilty to health and safety offences following the accident in January 2002, but after the hearing Corus expressed its disappointment at the outcome.

The court was told how 53-year-old Bernard Thompson was lucky to emerge with serious cuts and bruises after the accident which happened at the Corus site, in Redcar, east Cleveland.

Mr Thompson, from Middlesbrough, had been working on the cooling tower when he fell through it.

The court was told that he had he put his ladder on a layer of plastic diffusing elements inside the tower, which are very fragile.

The combined weight of man and ladder was sufficient to make the elements give way sending Mr Thompson on a 40ft-fall.

He landed in a 3ft deep water lagoon at the bottom - which probably helped break his fall and spared him further injury.

However, the court was told that the worker had to take several months off work following the accident.

Dr David Shallow, of the Health and Safety Executive, said: "This man is extremely fortunate not to have been killed.

"I know of two instances where people have died after falling ten metres.

"If he had hit his head on the way down he could have drowned in the metre of water."

Corus was criticised for not informing planning engineers about the thin plastic flooring.

It was prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 section three - failing to provide a safe place of work for persons not in their employment.

Plettac, based on Deeside Industrial Estate, in Flintshire, Wales, was criticised for not having a proper planning system in place.

It was prosecuted under section two of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to provide a safe place of work.

Speaking after the verdict, spokeswoman for Corus Karen Lloyd, said: "Corus is disappointed with the verdict.

"We would have expected the hearing to take into account that procedures were not followed."