Prosecutions

A Lincolnshire-based frozen food supplier has been fined after a man's finger was amputated when his hand was crushed at work.

The incident occurred at the company’s site in Boston on 10 February 2009 when the worker tried to straighten some boxes on an automatic palletising machine.

Boston Magistrates' Court heard that although the box loading machine which the man was working on had a perspex guard attached, the employee routinely entered the enclosure while the machinery was running.

While behind the guard, his fingers were caught between a pallet and the conveyor, resulting in his middle finger being amputated from the tip to the first knuckle. He was subsequently off work for six months.

The company was investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and it was found a number of employees had been given interlock parts which effectively overrode the safety systems in place and allowed access to the enclosure.

The company is part of an international chain which has eight production sites in Belgium, France and the UK.

It was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £3,500 at Boston Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.

HSE Inspector Scott Wynne said:

"This is a large international company and it is often assumed companies of this size adhere to health and safety policies at all times.

"The employee regularly gained access to the machinery, defeating the safety device using an interlock mechanism given to him by another member of staff.

"The automatic palletising machine can carry up to a ton of boxes so the employee could easily have suffered more severe injuries. The company should have had robust supervision and monitoring that should have identified staff were overriding interlocks and stopped it happening."