24/08/2010 - Shop fitters fined over asbestos
A company has been fined £4,000 after five workers were exposed to potentially fatal asbestos fibres at the Arndale Centre in Manchester.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Eastern Regional Shopfitters after it ignored a report alerting them to the fact asbestos was present in a shop it was working on.
Two workers, who had spent five days removing old shop fittings before they discovered asbestos had been in some of the ceiling panels, were exposed to the fibres.
Three members of management at the shopping centre were also potentially exposed as they checked on the work being carried out.
Eastern Regional Shopfitters admitted three breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and one of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. It was fined £4,000 at Trafford Magistrates' Court.
The company was charged with breaching Regulations 5, 8 and 11 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 by failing to carry out a suitable assessment of the asbestos, carrying out asbestos removal without a license, and exposing workers to asbestos.
The firm, of Norman Way Industrial Estate in Over near Cambridge, also pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by putting workers at risk.
Eastern Regional Shopfitters was ordered to pay £3,215 towards the cost of the prosecution, in addition to the fine, on 19 August.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
Related links
|
