Company fined £79,000 and contractor given 6-month sentence

Following a tip-off from a member of the public about asbestos, the HSE visited a former brewery in Burton on Trent.  The HSE found:

• Significant areas of the building had been contaminated.
• Four large, unprotected holes had been cut in the first and second floors, allowing a person to easily fall
• The site was being used for accommodation
• A worker had been diagnosed with Legionnaire’s Disease.
• The company, Optima, failed to monitor the temperature of water systems

The Fire and Rescue Service visited and found:

• No fire safety risk assessment
• Inadequate alarms and fire detection equipment
• Obstructed escape routes
• Inadequately signposted and block fire escape routes
• No emergency lighting
• No escape procedure

The HSE:

• Instructed Optima and their self-employed site manager, Dominik Jaslowski, to leave the site undisturbed and arrange for a licensed asbestos-removal contractor to clear more than 27 tonnes of the hazardous substance from the site.
• Issued prohibition notices preventing the building being used for accommodation and preventing the further use of the hot-water system and showers. 
•  Prosecuted Optima under

1.       Health and Safety at Work Act

2.       Construction (Design and Management) Regulations

3.       Control of Asbestos Regulations

4.       Work at Height Regulations

5.       Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations

• Prosecuted Jaslowski under 2 counts of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations

Optima were fined £79,000 (Inc.costs).
Jaslowski was given a 6-month suspended prison sentence, ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid community service and pay £3500 in costs.

Source: SHP 3 April 2013