A Surrey-based firm has been prosecuted after its scaffolding came crashing down in a potentially life-threatening incident.

Firefighters had to use thermal imaging cameras to see if anyone was trapped under the mess when a 40ft high section of scaffolding collapsed on December 18, 2009.

Nobody was hurt in the incident in Copenhagen Way, Walton, but it smashed windows and damaged the rear of properties.

It took firefighters three hours to work their way through the rubble in the darkness and snow.

One elderly couple - Iris and Ernest Bradshaw - were left shaken after the collapse, which woke then from their sleep in the early hours of the morning.

Mrs Bradshaw said: “The noise was so terrific we thought a plane was coming down.”

Another elderly woman was left unable to reach the refrigerator in her garden because it was too unsafe, so had to keep sending her daughter out for more food.

On Wednesday, June 1, Johnson Scaffold Services Ltd pleaded guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act .

The company was fined £7,500 by Staines Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay costs of £7,000, for leaving the scaffolding unsafe overnight, and inadequately tied together.

Inspector Denis Bodger of the Health and Safety Executive, said: “This was a serious incident that could have resulted in severe injury or worse, it was sheer luck that meant no one was in the way of the scaffolding when it collapsed.

“Scaffolds should be designed by a competent person or built to a recognised standard. At no stage during erection, use or removal should they be left in an unstable state where they could collapse."