PHSC Group – Industry News

Worcester Crown Court has fined Avon Freight Group and its Managing Director, Simon Poole, £30,000 each with £26,000 costs each after a “jobbing builder” was contracted to illegally remove asbestos.

The selfemployed builder found himself £3,000 worse off. The case concerned refurbishment work to offices that required asbestos insulation board (AIB) to be removed. Despite the architect having identified AIB from a survey, and even going so far as to provide a selection of quotes to his client for proper removal and disposal, the client placed the work with an unlicensed builder presumably to save money. Some time later a different contractor, visiting the premises to do other work, reported that he had found fragments of AIB on floors and left attached to walls.

The subsequent investigation by HSE found that people including staff, contractors and a tenant had unknowingly been at risk for five months and would have to live with the worry that they had inhaled fibres.

Tesco has been ordered to pay £59,500 in fines and costs after two separate incidents at a Leicester store within three months.

The first concerned an elderly customer who was caught on both legs when an employee pulled a pallet of electrical goods though the store, causing deep cuts to her legs. The second was in the petrol station where a door, known to be defective, fell onto a member of staff and injured her back, chest and wrist.

Although Tesco had a reporting procedure, no-one had completed an entry for the door and there were no signs to warn staff that it was awaiting repair. Managers were found not to be correctly monitoring the safety records, and they had failed to report the staff injury within the statutory timeframe.

Hotel owner Michael Wilson and the company of which he is sole director were ordered to pay £260,000 in fines and costs at Blackfriars Crown Court for numerous breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This is thought to be the first case of its type that has been tried by a jury. The prosecution followed an investigation into a fire that quickly spread from a guest bedroom at Chumleigh Lodge Hotel in north London. Although there were no injuries, it was found that some guest rooms had no smoke alarms, several fire doors were defective, and designated escape routes were blocked. To make things worse, Mr Wilson had not carried out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and had failed to provide adequate fire safety training to his staff. A guest who escaped via a second floor window was awarded £2,000 compensation.