Led into peril

A demolition firm, its director and a past director have been fined a total of £245,000 after workers were exposed to asbestos at a former factory in Birmingham.

Birmingham Crown Court imposed the fines on 3 August 2004 after the company, Dalebrick Ltd, and two of its officers, Morris Williams and Joanne Carroll, pleaded guilty to a number of charges.

Dalebrick was fined £50,000 and Williams £10,000 on each of four counts of breaching:

• Section 2(1) of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) by not ensuring the safety of employees;
• Section 3(1) of same by failing to ensure the safety of non-employees;
• Reg. 3(1) of the Asbestos Licensing Regulations 1983 for carrying out work with asbestos without a licence; and
• Reg. 17(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 1987 for failing to provide adequate washing and changing facilities.

Carroll was fined a total of £5000 for breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of HSWA. Both Williams and Carroll were disqualified from holding any directorships for two years and one year, respectively.

The court heard that between 22 August and 27 September 2001, Dalebrick had taken up a contract to ‘soft-strip’ an old factory building. The company did not have a licence to work with asbestos, nor did the workers have adequate protection.

Dalebrick had hired a team of five temporary agency workers, who had raised concerns about exposure to asbestos on the site. The foreman, an employee of Dalebrick, had asked Williams for appropriate dust masks, not the disposable masks with which they had been supplied, but this request was ignored.

Workers raise alarm

After almost five weeks, the team walked off the site and a second team of four workers was hired from a different agency. One of the original team contacted the HSE to express their concerns. Investigating HSE inspector, Pam Folsom, found that a courtyard in the factory had been piled high with asbestos insulation board, as well as asbestos cement and pipe-lagging. A prohibition notice to stop work on the site was served. Folsom also found that there were no lavatories, or washing or changing facilities to allow decontamination.

Ray Cooke, the HSE principal inspector in the case, said that the HSE decided to prosecute the two individuals as well as the company because, in its view, Williams was the most culpable party. He had visited the site and knew what was going on. He had been asked to provide proper masks, which he had not supplied.

In mitigation, Williams said that he had no relevant previous convictions, and took full responsibility for the incident. He confirmed he was ignorant of the law in this case and had been under huge time pressure. Carroll said she had been just a secretary before being made a director - after Williams had decided not to continue as a director - and had no other convictions. Dalebrick itself was not represented.

Folsom said: “This is one of the worst situations I have come across, not only in relation to the asbestos risks, but because work was allowed to go ahead despite the concerns of the workforce. The HSE is grateful to the worker who, realising that the conditions were not right, alerted us to the problem. Had he not done so, this work could have gone on for much longer.”