A site supervisor has said an unsupervised, untrained worker, who fell almost six metres and is now paraplegic, climbed onto a roof "to try and impress me".
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The supervisor, Karl Allred, 64, was sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
In lieu of a hefty fine, Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker took the unusual step of ordering Allred create a work health and safety video for use in the construction industry.
She also sentenced Allred to a three-year good behaviour order.
Allred previously pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a health and safety duty exposing a person to risk of death or serious injury.
The chief magistrate had adjourned the matter last year to allow him the opportunity to co-operate with WorkSafe ACT and create such a video.
However, on Wednesday, the court heard WorkSafe had "declined to participate" in making the video and Allred had produced it himself.
Allred's barrister, Steven Whybrow, said: "It's certainly not going to win an Oscar, your honour."
"It was created by Mr Allred who spoke very eloquently until the camera was turned on and then became very nervous," Mr Whybrow told the court.
In the video, Allred speaks directly to the camera stating the victim "was up there to try and impress me to say he was going to be painting the windows upstairs".
"Everybody gets complacent ... everybody gets lazy with it sometimes," Allred says.
"At the end of the day we are all human, we get frustrated ... even I got slack and my fellow colleague, he got slack as well.
"If you see somebody doing something silly pull them up on it, it's not dobbing them in."
Mr Whybrow said ordering his client make another video was "a moot exercise" without the input of WorkSafe ACT.
The lawyer stated the first video was "intended to be an effort to basically get across that things can go wrong very quickly".
Prosecutor Sofia Janackovic said Allred's effort was "quite imbalanced".
"It is quite surprising that much was said about the failings and responsibilities of the workers but not much was said about the failings of the [business owner]," Ms Janackovic told the court.
She said Worksafe was now content to provide input or feedback for another video.
Ms Walker ordered Allred create another video reflecting his crimes and the impacts, this time with assistance from the government organisation.
"I might be over optimistic but I would like to see this done ... I do perceive it could have a powerful impact on the industry," Ms Walker said.
Agreed facts state in 2020 Allred's business, First Class Painting, was subcontracted to undertake a full external repaint of a two-storey townhouse complex in Kingston.
The victim, from Brazil, was not qualified or licenced other than with a general instruction induction card.
None of the workers except for the victim could speak English and the group needed him to translate Allred's instructions into Portuguese.
About 7.15am on June 9, 2020, Allred visited the site and demonstrated how to use a safety harness kit.
In an interview with WorkSafe, Allred stated "we were only just having a bit of a play with the roof kit to see how it all worked and how it would lock in".
Allred then left the site.
During this time the victim set up the roof kit and tied two ladders together with orange strapping, measuring almost six metres from the ground.
While the man was wearing the harness at times, he removed it and climbed to the top of the conjoined ladders.
The top ladder slipped, causing him to fall onto the balcony roof and slide off before falling to the ground.
The victim sustained a spinal injury, leaving him paraplegic for the rest of his life.
