Now the firm who erected the scaffold has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for putting up an unsafe structure.

Skegness Magistrates Court heard how self-employed Mario Mazzarella was working on scaffolding built for him by Panther Scaffolding at the Helal Restaurant on Mercer Row in Louth on 9 November 2009.

A bus collided with the structure that had been built out over the road, causing him to fall more than four metres to the ground. Passengers on the bus were unharmed.

Andrew Mark Judge, trading as Panther Scaffolding, was prosecuted for failing to ensure that the workers, who erected the scaffolding the day before, worked in a safe way and that the finished scaffolding was a safe structure for its user and vehicles moving through the town.

After the hearing HSE inspector Martin Giles said: “The scaffolding should have been erected in a safe manner, and the finished scaffold should not have jutted out over the road at a height where it could be a danger to passing traffic.

“The failure to provide adequate scaffolding was caused by inadequate planning before work started and a failure to check that the finished scaffold was safe before handing it over.”

Judge, 44, of Scamblesby, Louth, pleaded guilty to breaching safety regulations and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £3,739 costs.