Health and Safety issues lead to prosecutions.
Harmful asbestos stored near school and girl guide centre by conman ordered to pay more than £80,000
A conman who deceived customers over the disposal of harmful asbestos in more than 40 towns and cities across England has been ordered to pay back £82,100 and given a suspended sentence.
Firm fined following outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease
A plastics manufacturing company in West Bromwich has been fined after it put workers and the public at risk of being infected with potentially deadly bacteria.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated Riaar Plastics Limited after members of the public became infected with Legionnaire’s disease in September 2020.
Five people were infected with the potentially deadly lung infection. One person was taken to intensive care and put on a ventilator after being infected.
Riaar Plastics Limited was fined for failing to manage the risk of Legionella. HSE found the water-cooling towers inherited by Riaar Plastics Limited at its site on Black Lake, West Bromwich, were in an extremely poor condition. This allowed Legionella bacteria to grow in the water-cooling towers and pipes, exposing employees and members of the public to risks of significant ill health.
People can get Legionnaires’ disease when they breathe in small droplets of water in air that contains the Legionella bacteria.
Two jailed and a third sentenced for storing material at a waste site illegally
Two men have been jailed and a third sentenced after the Environment Agency found they were storing material at a waste site illegally.
Thomas Todd, Jamie Todd and Bryan Walker stored waste in a way that broke a number of fire regulations at the former Bowman’s Site, in Skegness, Lincolnshire near the A52.
The offences were committed between June 2015 and April 2017 and last month Thomas and Jamie Todd were both sentenced to eight months in prison and were disqualified from acting as a director of a business for five years.
Bryan Walker was given a 12-month community order with 10 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement Days. He was also disqualified from acting as a director of a business for five years and ordered to pay £60 as a victim surcharge.
Yvonne Daly, an Environment Manager at the Environment Agency said: “Waste crime is serious because it causes widespread and significant harm: to people, places, the economy, to law and order, and to the environment.
“Any breaches of environmental permits and illegal waste activity are taken very seriously. We will take the necessary action to disrupt criminal activity and prosecute those responsible.
“We support businesses trying to do the right thing and genuinely comply, but we will issue enforcement notices, and use our regulatory powers when appropriate.