High street retailers Marks & Spencer have been fined £1million with £600,000 costs for putting contractors, staff and the public at risk from asbestos.

Three contractors working on the stores in Reading and Bournemouth where the offences occurred have also been fined.

Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK, with an estimated 4,000 people dying as a result of exposure every year.

The fines and costs were imposed at a sentencing hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court after the retailer and the contractors had previously been found guilty.

PA Realisations were fined £200 and Styles & Wood were fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000 for breaches that took place at the Marks & Spencer store in Broad Street, Reading. Willmott Dixon Construction were fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £75,000 for breaches that took place at the Marks & Spencer in Commercial Road, Bournemouth. Willmott Dixon Construction are applying for permission to appeal against their conviction.

As a result of a prosecution brought by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), Marks and Spencer, Willmott Dixon Construction, and PA Realisations (formerly Pectel Ltd) were found guilty in July. Styles & Wood pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing in January. The work leading to the prosecutions was carried out between 2006 and 2007.

During the three-month trial that ended in July 2011, Winchester Crown Court heard construction workers at the two stores removed asbestos-containing materials that were present in the ceiling tiles and elsewhere.

The court heard that the Marks & Spencer, the clients, did not allocate sufficient time and space for the removal of asbestos-containing materials at the Reading store. The contractors had to work overnight in enclosures on the shop floor, with the aim of completing small areas of asbestos removal before the shop opened to the public each day.

HSE said Marks & Spencer failed to ensure the work at the Reading store complied with the appropriate minimum standards set out in legislation and approved codes of practice. The company had produced its own guidance on how asbestos should be removed inside its stores and the court heard that this guidance was followed by contractors inappropriately during a major refurbishment.

The contractors, PA Realisations, failed to reduce to a minimum the spread of asbestos to the shop floor. Witnesses said that areas cleaned by the company were re-contaminated by air moving through the void between the ceiling tiles and the floor above, and by poor standards of work.

Styles & Wood, principal contractors at the Reading store, admitted they should not have permitted a method of asbestos removal which did not allow for adequate sealing of the ceiling void, which resulted in risks to contractors on site.

At the Bournemouth store, HSE accused Wilmott Dixon Construction of failing to plan, manage and monitor removal of asbestos-containing materials. The contractors did not prevent the possibility of asbestos being disturbed by their workers in areas that had not been surveyed extensively.

After the sentencing, Richard Boland, HSE's Southern Head of Operations for Construction, said: “This outcome should act as a wake up call that any refurbishment programmes involving asbestos-containing materials must be properly resourced, both in terms of time and money - no matter what.

“Large retailers and other organisations who carry out major refurbishment works must give contractors enough time and space within the store to carry out the works safely. Where this is not done, and construction workers and the public are put at risk, HSE will not hesitate in taking robust enforcement action.”

Marks & Spencer Plc, of Waterside House, North Wharf Road, Westminster, was found guilty of breaching section 2(1), relating to its own staff, and section 3(1), relating to members of the public and other workers, of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, on 18 July 2011. At the sentencing which took place at Bournemouth Crown Court on the 27 September, Marks and Spencer plc was fined £1 million and ordered to pay costs of £600,000. These charges and fines relate to the Broad Street, Reading store and date from 24 April 2006 to 13 November 2006.

Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd, of Hertfordshire, was found guilty of contravening sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 between 5 February 2007 and 28 February 2007, on 18 July 2011. At the sentencing that took place at Bournemouth Crown Court on 26 September, Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £75,000. These breaches took place at the Marks & Spencer store in Commercial Road, Bournemouth.

Manchester-based company PA Realisations Ltd (formerly Pectel Ltd), of the Observatory, Chapel Walks, Manchester, was found guilty, on the 18 July 2011,of contravening regulation 15 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 between 5 May 2006 and 12 November 2006 at the Marks & Spencer store on Broad Street, Reading. At the sentencing, which took place at Bournemouth Crown Court on 27 September, PA Realisations Ltd was fined £200. The company went into administration in December 2008 and now awaits dissolution.

At an earlier hearing on 12 January 2010, Styles & Wood Ltd, of Manchester Road, Altrincham, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to contravening sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. These charges relate to offences committed between 24 April 2006 and 13 November 2006 at the Marks and Spencer plc store on Broad Street, Reading. At the sentencing, which took place at Bournemouth Crown Court on 27 September, Styles & Wood was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of £40,000.