A cleaning firm has been fined £60,000 for safety failings after a worker suffered devastating and life-changing injuries plunging through a roof.

Cleansafe Services, a commercial cleaning company based in Progress Way, Waddon, took "grossly inadequate" steps to protect its staff ahead of the 2013 accident.

A 36-year-old employee, from West Sussex, suffered brain damage, a complex skull fracture, multiple arm and wrist fractures and broken ribs when he fell six metres through a fragile rooflight on December 11.

He spent two months in hospital, some of that time in an induced coma, following the fall, which has left him unable to work. 

He also lost his senses of smell and taste and the hearing in one ear, and has impaired sight in one eye.

Amanda Huff, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said: "The victim of this case suffered life-threatening, and now life-changing, injuries and there is no doubt that this could have been a fatality.

"Cleansafe Services is a commercial company operating throughout the country but had no experience of working on fragile roofs.

"The risk assessment was not fit for the purpose and the result was the limited safety measures it took to protect the workforce were grossly inadequate."

Cleansafe admitted three breaches of health and safety regulations on Friday at Eastbourne Magistrates' Court after being prosecuted by the HSE. 

The court heard the worker had been on a small team sent by the firm to clean 24 acrylic rooflights at a car rental workshop in Eastbourne. He inadvertently stepped onto one of the rooflights and fell onto the concrete floor.

HSE said Cleansafe could have hired a mobile working platform so workers did not have to go on the roof or used crawling boards with handrails and netting.

Following the fall, it serviced the company with a prohibition notice to halt further work until safety measures were installed.

Ms Huff said: "It is unacceptable for firms to put their employees at needless risk. There are several people killed each year and many more badly injured falling through fragile roofs.

"Work should be planned so no one needs to get onto the roof. Where it is necessary, safeguards such as edge protection, safety nets and roof stagings must be used."

The court also ordered Cleansafe to pay £5,741 costs.

The company has not yet responded to a request for a comment.