Shropshire boss jailed after asbestos roof fall death
A Shropshire businessman has been jailed for 12 months after his company illegally supplied roofing panels containing asbestos.
Company director Robert Marsh's offences came to light after a 56-year-old construction worker, who was roofing a barn using the panels, fell through the material and later died.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that 64-year-old Marsh, sole director of RM Developments (2005) Ltd of Newport, had supplied pre-used roofing sheets containing white asbestos to a farming partnership building a barn in Frankley, Worcestershire.
At Worcester Crown Court it was heard the partnership hired steel erector Tony Podmore to use the materials to build the barn.
But during the final phase of its construction on June 8, 2011, Mr Podmore, of Calf Heath, near Wolverhampton, fell and later died of his injuries in hospital.
The farm partnership had agreed to pay £4,000 for roofing material. However Marsh supplied poor-quality, panels that had cost him nothing.
As he had paid just £250 for transport, he stood to make a profit of £3,750 on the roof alone.
Marsh, of Station Road, Hodnet, near Market Drayton, changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial to a health and safety charge and a charge relating to the safety of using white asbestos.
As well as the 12 month prison sentence he was disqualified from being a director for six years and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.
