Company director jailed for illegal asbestos removal

Cavendish Winchester Ltd was established by Stephen Davies to refurbish a commercial unit in Winnall Close, Hampshire into rental accommodation for students. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that during the refurbishment in late 2019 and early 2020, an estimated 10 tonnes of AIB were stripped out by workers who were “unqualified to do the job and unaware of the risks to their health”.

An estimated 10 tonnes of asbestos-contaminated material was illegally stripped out of a building that was being refurbished into student accommodation. Photograph: HSE

Both Davies and his co-director, Neil Bolton, had previously sought quotes to have the dangerous materials removed by a licenced asbestos removal contractor, said HSE. However, “they chose to save a considerable amount of money” by employing unqualified workers to do the job, the regulator added.

The investigation was “unable to determine” where much of the asbestos-contaminated debris was disposed of, meaning that other people in the waste-removal chain could also have been put at risk.

Davies, 59, and Bolton, 56, both of Petworth, West Sussex, pleaded guilty to Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 after their company was found to have breached Section 4(1) of the Act.

Davies was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on 27 March to eight months in prison, while Bolton received a four-month suspended sentence. Their company, Cavendish Winchester Ltd, was fined £30,000.

“We brought this case because despite the directors of this company being put on notice of the risks involved, they put profit before the health of those they employed,” said HSE principal inspector Steve Hull. “The defendants then tried to cover their tracks by legitimising the removal of a small amount of asbestos-containing materials, after illegally stripping out the majority, by obtaining a new quote for legal removal of that very small remaining portion.” 

This “deliberate attempt to save money”, added Hull, meant that the workers employed by the company to remove the materials faced the possibility of developing “serious asbestos-related disease in the future”.

Asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999 after it was discovered that exposure to asbestos fibres could cause lung cancers and Mesothelioma. About 5,000 people die every year from asbestos-related conditions in the UK.

As British Safety Council’s head of audit and consultancy, Phil Pinnington, wrote in this recent blog post, many health and safety practitioners expect an asbestos-related time bomb of illnesses and fatalities related to exposure in the 1980s and 1990s.

British Safety Council’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing Manifesto calls for the provision of adequate funding for HSE, the Buildings Safety Regulator and local authorities that regulate and inspect health and safety.

“Our call recognises the challenges that an asbestos-related time bomb poses for a regulator whose funding sits £43 million lower today than it did in 2010,” wrote Pinnington in his blog.

HSE recently updated its guidance on asbestos safety and has launched an Asbestos: Your Duty campaign.