The partner of a restaurant owner who spread asbestos over the site of an Indian takeaway has been fined £15,000.
Aman Ullah was overseeing refurbishment work at the Cleeve property, which is currently closed to the public, in June last year.
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the Bombay Palace when the work was being carried out and North Somerset Magistrates’ Court heard that they had raised concerns that Mr Ullah and his team had been spreading asbestos across the site. They believed this to have happened when insulation boards covering roof rafters had been removed and placed against a wall outside the building, with inspectors reporting what looked like asbestos fibres sticking out of the boards. Later analysis of the fibres confirmed that they were amosite and chrysotile asbestos.
Inspectors served a notice to Mr Ullah preventing him from touching the boards. It required a licensed contractor to remove them however when the inspectors next visited the property they found that Mr Ullah had removed the boards himself and wrongly disposed of them at a recycling centre in Bristol.
Mr Ullah pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety law and was ordered to pay the court £5,000 for each of the three offences, along with a £500 victim surcharge.
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