A construction company that continually flouted health and safety advice has been forced to pay more than £20,000 in fines.

Anza Ltd, formerly of Croydon, but now in liquidation, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after inspectors found a series of serious safety issues at a site in Lewisham in 2009.

Westminster Magistrates Court heard on May 16 Anza had been warned about managing the risk of falls for employees following a visit in May but a repeat inspection in July found there were still insufficient measures to prevent workers use stairs to lower levels from falling.

The HSE investigation found advice given to Anza Ltd on its duty of care to site workers had also been ignored, and they had failed to comply with the requirements of the Improvement Notice served in May.

HSE Inspector Abosede Ogunsekan said: “This company had ignored previous warnings and enforcement notices from HSE, and continued to neglect their duty of care to their workers.

“Falls from height are the greatest cause of major injury and fatalities in the construction industry; and if companies do not take steps to prevent these, then HSE will be robust in its response.

“Even though there were no injuries in this instance, serious safety breaches were continued by this construction company which could have resulted in serious injuries”.

Anza Ltd, of Wydehurst Road, Croydon, was found guilty in absentia of single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 – three breaches in total.

The company was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £6,752.