A contractor has been fined £10,000 after an asbestos removal worker was killed at Cwmcarn High School.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Caswell Environmental Services Ltd after 26-year-old father James Paul, from Abertillery, was electrocuted.
On October 21, Newport Magistrates’ Court heard how Mr Paul had accessed a ceiling void at the school on July 19, 2013 and had cut into a live electric cable.
HSE said Caswell Environmental Services Ltd did not take adequate steps to isolate the electricity supply.
The company, of Lynton House, Tavistock Square, London, were found guilty in their absence, to breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, 1974.
In sentencing the judge considered the fact the company was now in liquidation and delivered a total nominal fine of £10,000 with £1,000 in costs.
District Judge Martin Brown admitted the level of fine may appear “insulting”, but added: “Had I been dealing with a company continuing to operate with the sort of profit margins exhibited in previous accounts, this court would have been looking at a fine certainly in excess of £200,000.”