A building firm has been fined after it "buried its head in the sand" about asbestos hazards.

MP Builders Ltd, of Games Roads, Barnet, was converting an old pub in Victoria Road, Barnet, into flats, when people raised concerns about the health risks.

Westminster Magistrates Court was told an inspector from the Health and Safety executive visited the site on March 4, 2013 to check conditions.

The inspector ordered the firm to provide information about how it was managing asbestos and said it had taken inadequate fire precautions.

As a result the HSE visited again on March 22 and served an improvement notice on the company, giving them four weeks to provide workers with asbestos training.

The deadline was later extended by one week but the building firm failed to comply, despite assurances to the contrary.

It has now been fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 in costs.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Stephron Baker Holmes said: “The improvement notice was straightforward. It was simple and inexpensive to comply with, by providing training to employees liable to be exposed to asbestos.

“If the company had any doubts or questions, it had ample opportunity to ask them and I would have done all I could to help. Instead it apparently buried its head in the sand.

“As well as not meeting the extended deadline, the company continued in its failure to provide any evidence of compliance at any time during more than a year. It seems MP Builders just turned a blind eye to its responsibilities.”