A handyman has been fined £480 and ordered to pay costs of £1,000 after removing asbestos boards from an office in Lichfield.
Daniel Hepple, 35 and from Tamworth, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The court heard that Wetenhall Properties had instructed him to remove the asbestos insulation boards from some internal doors of its offices at Energy House on Lombard Street.
But as they were removed in what Lichfield District Council described as an unsafe manner by an unlicensedperson, the work would have resulted in harmful asbestos fibres being released into the air.
The court fined Hepple £480 and ordered him to pay court costs of £1,000.
Councillor Colin Greatorex, Lichfield District Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing & Health, said: “We brought this case to court because protecting health and safety in the work place is so important, and we take breaches in it very seriously.
“It goes to show that everyone must take personal responsibility for their actions, even if carrying out instructions at work.”
