In court: Guilty plea

DML, a company that refits warships and submarines for the Royal Navy, has pleaded guilty at Plymouth magistrates court to exposing up to 24 subcontractors to white asbestos dust while they were refurbishing a building.

Ronald Boyd, for the HSE, said tests had suggested that occasionally asbestos levels could have been 90 times higher the exposure standard. On average, the men could have been exposed to twice the allowed safety standard.

Boyd said: 'Up to 24 young men must now agonise for 40 years whether at some stage they are going to suffer symptoms of mesothelioma, asbestosis or cancer.'

The docks have seen 612 asbestos-related deaths since 1997.

The case goes to Plymouth Crown Court for sentencing.