Employee complaint uncovered asbestos exposure

Jocelyn Dorrell | Prosecutions and Claims |
28.11.2008

A loan provider has been fined after one if its employees complained to his local council that he might have been exposed to asbestos.

Wilmslow-based Freedom Finance - which has featured twice in The Sunday Times' list of best companies to work - admitted three health and safety breaches before Macclesfield magistrates and was fined £6000.

The prosecution followed a complaint to Macclesfield Borough Council in June 2007. A member of staff said he was concerned he'd been exposed to asbestos after surveys carried out in April and June that year, at the request of Freedom's insurers, discovered the substance in the office's boiler room and lift motor room.

The council's subsquent investigation found that a number of employees had been exposed to asbestos. Macclesfield Magistrates' Court heard the surveys should have been carried out three years earlier; the duty to manage asbestos came into force in 2004.

Freedom Finance was fined £1000 under Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, for failing to carry out a suitable risk assessment; £1000 under Regulation 4(3) of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations, which requires dutyholders to assess whether asbestos is present in their premises; and £4000 under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, for failing to take reasonable steps to ensure employees' health and safety.

As well as the fines, which took into account the broker's early guilty plea, Freedom Finance must pay nearly £1200 council costs.

After the case, managing director Richard Beaumont, who has since left the company, said they had implemented improvements as a matter of urgency after the incident and greatly regretted the situation. He said the company now has an up-to-date and comprehensive safety management system in place.

Freedom Finance has received recognition in the past for its levels of employee care: it operates a Bupa scheme, offers above-average leave, runs a health and safety awareness programme, and makes NVQ training available to all staff.