Macclesfield company sentenced over finger loss
Proseal (UK) has been fined £3,500 after an employee lost two fingers in machinery.
The 34-year-old employee from Stockport, who has not been named, had his middle and ring fingers cut down to the knuckle when his right hand was dragged into a mechanism at the company's factory in Adlington, Cheshire.
Proseal was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under the Health and Safety at Work Act after an investigation found the employee was allowed to wear gloves while polishing metal at a lathe.
The court heard that guidance on the dangers of wearing gloves while using a lathe was first issued by the HSE nearly 20 years ago.
The company pleaded guilty at the hearing at Macclesfield Magistrates' Court. It was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay £3,807 in prosecution costs on 17 February 2012.
Speaking after the hearing, Lisa Lewis, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: "This was a needless injury which could easily have been avoided if Proseal had followed health and safety guidance, which is now nearly 20 years old.
"Proseal should have put more thought into the dangers its employees faced, and provided adequate training to reduce the risk of them being injured. If it had taken this action then a worker could have avoided losing two fingers."
