Coalville-based fabrication firm Kenray Forming has been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,932 after a worker had part of his finger severed in a packaging machine back in September 2011.
The worker was test running a bagging machine when he slipped, put his hand out to steady himself and found it in the front of the unguarded machine. His fingers were trapped between one of the vacuum pull belts and its rollers, leading to a severed finger and multiple fractures.
Hinckley Magistrates' Court was told that an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to guard dangerous parts of the machine.
"It would not have happened if the available guards, which are there to protect machine operators, had not been removed. Kenray Forming should have had a system to ensure the guarding mechanisms remained permanently in place."
Kenray Forming pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of PUWER (the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998).
