Two business owners who took on a 2.4m contract to transform a department store into student accommodation have been convicted of putting their employees at potentially fatal risk from asbestos.
James Keegan, 65, and Alan Barraclough, 51, were both directors of Keebar Construction Ltd when they took on the job to transform Joplings in Sunderland into student housing in 2017. Newcastle Crown Court heard how the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the site in October that year and stopped the construction work after discovering numerous employees had been exposed to the risk of asbestos over around a five-month period.
James Patrick McKeon, prosecuting for the HSE, told the court how an expert described it as "one of the worst cases of uncontrolled asbestos exposure that he had come across". He said: "Both the defendants, as directors of the company, have been found to be personally liable for the offences. They instructed others to work in the building, exposing them to serious risk from asbestos."
