Property firm fined £63k after ignoring repeated warnings about dust exposure

Nofax Enterprises Limited was fined £63,000 after HSE paid four visits to its site on Dalston Lane over a 13 month period. The company incurred five prohibition notices and was served nine enforcement notices.

Property developer, Nofax Enterprises Limited, stood guilty of multiple working at height risks, poor fire precautions, and failing to protect workers from exposure to wood dust. There were also insufficient covid and welfare controls discovered during the visits between 2020 and 2021.

Breaches of silica dust exposure were so serious they resulted in the site being closed down on two separate occasions, said HSE.

Nofax Enterprises were served with nine enforcement notices for a catalogue of failures. Photograph: iStock

HSE’s investigation included inspections at other sites operated by the company, identifying a poor health and safety culture and systemic management failings.

Nofax Enterprises Limited, of Maldon, Essex pleaded guilty to breaches of sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was ordered to pay a fine of £63,000 at the hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 18 March.

In summing up, the judge said there had been a “systemic failure within the organisation to manage health and safety.”

After the hearing, HSE inspector Gordon Nixon said: “This company showed a total disregard to keeping its workers safe.

“They failed to meet even the most basic health and safety standards, continually exposing operatives to serious risks."