The court heard how an employee was operating an unguarded pedestal drilling machine when the glove on his right hand became entangled in one of the rotating spindles of the drill.

The employee suffered injuries to the back of his right hand and a deep laceration to the palm. His injuries were so severe that he was off work for a month.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and fined £2,500. It was also ordered to pay £2,594 in costs.

A HSE inspector commented:

"Once again we have an incident of an employee who suffered serious injury simply because there wasn't the necessary protection around the drill. The employee is lucky he didn't lose a finger or worse.

This offence is all the more serious because the company had received previous advice from HSE about the need to guard its drilling machines - and had even identified the need in its own risk assessment - but did not do it.

It would have cost far less than the fine handed out today to install the required protection. Only weeks before the offence the company received a quote to fit a suitable guard at a cost of only £165."

Section 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states:

"Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken... which are effective... to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or... to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."