A firm from East Anglia has been fined for not taking appropriate precautions when handling asbestos.
East Anglian Construction Ltd, a subsidiary of Peter Colby Commercials, has been handed the fine after removing asbestos from its headquarters in Norwich. After being told to remove the material, rather than hire a specialist company to do the job, they decided to do it themselves but wrongly assumed that it was asbestos concrete, not asbestos insulation board that they were removing.
The company admitted three breaches of health and safety regulations and has been fined £30,000 and ordered to pay another £10,000 in legal costs although it denied prosecution claims that it had actually known that it was dealing with insulation boards as that fact had been made clear in the quotes they had received from companies they considered hiring to deal with the problem.
The company admitted the errors but said it had made a genuine attempt to comply with the regulations and would not deliberately put its employees at risk.
Source: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/norwich_firm_fined_over_asbestos_breach_1_724470