Prosecutions

The owners of a Prestwick meat processing plant have been convicted of failing to have a safe isolation procedure in place for machinery, after a worker lost three fingers when a machine he was attempting to repair started up.

In June 2008, a man was working on a packaging machine which had been under repair.  When it would not work, he attempted to fix it.  As the machine could not be properly isolated to prevent accidental operation, it started accidentally, trapping three of his fingers, which had to be amputated. Later at hospital, one finger was successfully reattached.

Since the accident, the company has been taken over, and there have been significant improvements in health and safety.

The company was recently fined £30,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Sections 2(1); 2 (2) and 33 (1) (a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at Prestwick Crown Court.

The court heard that a year before the accident, the company commissioned an electrical inspection of their premises which identified 866 faults with the electrics and wiring system, of which nearly 200 were rated as most urgent.  By the time of the accident, little or no work had been done to rectify these faults.