The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the company following the incident on 26 May 2008.

The court heard that a 22 year old employee had been trying to remove a jam in the guillotine when his fingers became trapped. Doctors were able to reattach two of his four fingers and he now has very limited movement in his right hand.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on Friday 8 January. The company was ordered to pay £2,438 towards the cost of the prosecution in addition to the fine.

A HSE inspector said:

"This incident has had a devastating impact upon the employees life, who is only in his early 20s. He cannot return to his old job and will not be able to do manual work in the foreseeable future, due to the limited strength and movement in his right hand.

The company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade. An automatic mechanism should also have been in place so that the power was cut if the guard was opened.

Instead the employee wrongly assumed that a colleague had switched the guillotine off, and he had four fingers cut off as a result.

This extremely serious incident demonstrates how important it is for manufacturing companies to have automatic safety systems, so that the risk of workers being injured is significantly reduced."