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£245,000 fine for asbestos breach
Aug 4 2004
A demolition firm and two of its directors have been fined a total of £245,000 after workers were exposed to asbestos at a Birmingham factory.
In imposing the financial penalty, Recorder John Ross QC, sitting at Birmingham Crown Court, said he had been shown an "horrific" video of the site on which workers as young as 16 had been employed to remove the poisonous fibre.
Dalebrick Ltd, based in Nuneaton, was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £60,000 costs.
Company director Morris Williams (54) who admitted four breaches of health and safety regulations was fined £40,000 with £10,000 costs and was banned from managing a company for two years.
Joanne Carroll (43), another director of the firm, was fined £5,000, ordered to pay £500 costs and was given a one year management ban after pleading guilty to two charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
In passing sentence on Williams, the judge said he had come very close to being sent to prison for a "clear and obvious" breach of the legislation and to expect no mercy if he ever appeared before the courts again in connection with putting employees lives at risk.
He said Williams would have known there was asbestos present on the site of a former factory in New John Street West, Newtown, Birmingham, yet agreed to take up a contract to remove parts of the internal structure without an asbestos licence.
The company, he said, had ignored warning from its own workforce, in particular a request for appropriate dust masks and had not told any of its employees about the hazardous nature of the materials they would be working with.
He also said he had no doubt that the offences were committed with a view to profit or with a view to saving money on the project.
The court had heard that workers had no proper washing facilities on the site and were forced to travel home in clothes contaminated with asbestos.
It was told the removal of the asbestos containing materials was carried out in a completely uncontrolled manner with no proper welfare and decontamination facilities on site.
