A council has been issued with a heavy fine after a man was injured in a fall.

The unnamed man, a drama teacher, was managing a production at Lyric Theatre in Carmarthenshire when he fell down an open lift shaft.

A subsequent investigation found that the lift was defective, but that safety barriers had not been put in place to prevent use of the lift.

The victim suffered a shattered right arm and a fractured eye socket in the accident.

Carmarthenshire county council was fined £20,000 for all three breaches of health and safety regulations, as well as £5,000 for a breach of the Lifting Equipment Regulations.

It was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £15, and costs totaling £7,712.

HSE Inspector Clare Owen commented: "This was an obvious risk for a theatre space and the simple systems needed to prevent incidents such as these should have been in place."

Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, every employer should make sure that work is not carried out at height when it can be successfully carried out at ground level.

Where work at height is carried out, employers are legally obliged to take adequate steps to prevent falls.