Two companies were fined more than £22,000 after a court heard how a window cleaner fell 15ft to his death through metal grill railings into an underground car park.

John Tippen, 61, fell last July as he worked on ground-floor windows at the rear of Virgin Holidays building in The Galleria in Station Road, Crawley.

Mr Tippen's employer, Strand Cleaning, was fined £15,000 after admitting breaches of the Health and Safety Act.

Virgin Holidays was also fined £7,500 at Chichester Crown Court because it also had a duty to ensure the safety of people at its building other than its own employees.

Both companies pleaded guilty and were ordered to share a costs bill of £5,000.

Tracy Ayling, prosecuting, said Mr Tippen was cleaning the window from a wall when he overbalanced and fell on to metal bars which broke, sending him plunging into an underground car park.

He was taken to hospital and put on a life support system but died 24 hours later.

She said Mr Tippen and a company manager had earlier carried out a risk assessment and it was decided the railings were not load bearing.

But on the day of the accident, Mr Tippen, of Coulsdon, Surrey, was not using the recommended method for cleaning the windows which should have been with an extension pole instead of standing on the wall.

Christoper Russell, defending Strand, of Forest Hill, London, said Mr Tippen was "in essence, the author of his own misfortune".

He agreed with Judge John Tanzer that the case against Strand came down to a lack of supervision.

Strand employed 58 window cleaners on 800 contracts and did not pay "lip service" to health and safety laws.

Christian Du Cann, defending Virgin, said the company had failed to ensure an adequately-expressed risk assessment was in place in relation to external cleaning operations but he called it a "technical breach" of the health and safety regulations.

Both companies had no previous convictions.