A COMPANY that exposed its employees to asbestos by breaking an import ban has been ordered to pay more than £24,000.

Power Link Machines (UK) Ltd had been formally warned about gaskets in its generator set after Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered that they contained the dangerous substance.

The Sherburn-in-Elmet company was told to remove the gaskets and not to import items containing asbestos.

But the company then imported a very similar generator from Power Link Machine (Shanghai) Co Ltd in China and its gaskets also contained asbestos, Leeds Magistrates Court heard.

An untrained employee was asked to remove the gaskets with asbestos from the imported generator and two other employees were then exposed to asbestos fibres by being asked to work within the generator set., an HSE spokesman said.

Power Link Machines (UK) Ltd, of Hurricane Close, Sherburn-in-Elmet pleaded guilty to breaching the health and safety at work act and breaching an asbestos regulation.

It was fined £22,000 and ordered to pay £2,062 costs to the HSE which brought the prosecution.

HSE inspector Rachel Brittain said: “When materials that contain asbestos are disturbed or damaged, fibres are released into the air. When these fibres are inhaled, they can cause serious diseases.

“Had the company put robust checks in place to ensure that they were not importing asbestos containing materials, this incident would not have occurred.”

In March 2018, the HSE served a prohibition notice on the company after its science division confirm that a substance found in gaskets in a generator on the North Yorkshire company’s site was asbestos.

The notice ordered the company to stop using the gaskets and to ensure it didn’t import any items containing asbestos.

But on September 21, 2018, the executive was told employees were being asked to work on a very similar generator. This was the one imported from China.

Checks revealed the gaskets on it also contained asbestos and the company had therefore breached the import ban.