Serious health and safety breaches at a Co-op convenience store put the health of shoppers and staff at risk by exposing them to harmful asbestos dust.  Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how when the Co-operative Group Limited took over the premises in Market Square, Royton, Oldham they were told that there was brown asbestos in the ceiling.

 

 

In 2002 an asbestos survey had been carried out by the then owners of the store, United  Co-operative. The search revealed the presence of asbestos in the ceilings of the shop. These findings were made known to the Co-operative Group Limited when it took charge of the premises in 2007. Despite this the company took no immediate action to ensure that the asbestos, and the dangers that it posed, were adequately managed.  

 

In November 2007 Co-operative Group Limited hired sub-contractors, SF Fire Protection Services Limited, to install a fire alarm. The contractors were warned by Co-operative Group Limited that asbestos was present in the premises, but they were not told the exact location of the asbestos.

 

In the process of installing the fire alarm a sub-contractor smashed a hole in one of the asbestos ceiling tiles with a hammer. The asbestos debris was cleaned up by Co-operative employees and was left in an open bag at the back of the store for two weeks before being discovered.

 

Three months after the incident asbestos waste was discovered on top of a food cabinet and inside a freezer.

 

Lisa Judge, prosecuting for Oldham council said: “Staff members and the public were potentially exposed to asbestos.”

 

Co-operative Group Limited pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. West Yorkshire based contractors, SF Fire Protection Services Limited, admitted two offences under the same act.

 

Judge Peter Larkin fined the Co-operative Group Limited £30,000 and ordered it to pay more than £7,360 in costs. SF Fire Protection Services Limited was fined a total of £12,000 plus more than £7.360 in costs.

 

Judge Larkin said: “The failures by the Co-operative resulted in staff being exposed to asbestos fibres for a three month period while the remedial work was undertaken.”

 

A spokesperson on behalf of the Co-operative Group Limited commented afterwards that it was “badly let down” by its sub-contractor. She added that tests on the store showed that the levels of asbestos dust in the atmosphere were within safe limits. The store is no longer owned by the company.

 

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About John Pickering and Partners LLP

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors

 

We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work.  We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. We have an ethical approach and donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.  We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.

 

Find out more about our donations to good causes. We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law. Find out more about us or  our reported cases. We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  Find out more about what others have said about us.

 

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the landmark Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

 

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life." Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

 

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs. It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

 

More than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015. 

 

The first Action Mesothelioma Day was launched on 27th February 2006.  Its objectives were to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people who may be exposed to asbestos.

If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.

 

Contact us to find out more about your entitlement to claim compensation if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer or pleural thickening.

 

For more information about asbestos diseases-

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www.mesothelioma-advice.co.uk

 

For more information about claiming for different types of asbestos disease-

Mesothelioma compensation claims

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Asbestosis compensation claims

Pleural thickening compensation claims

 

For more an explanation about different types of asbestos conditions-

Different asbestos conditions

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