Firm fined over crushed fingers

A food manufacturer has been ordered to pay £94,523 after a worker at a Norfolk factory had three fingers crushed in a packing machine.

Ludmila Jurkevica, 27, of King's Lynn, was attempting to clear a blockage at Tulip Limited's site in Beveridge Way in the town in November 2007.

Tulip admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Norwich Crown Court heard the machine did not have the correct guarding and sufficient training was not provided.

Mark Harris, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, said Ms Jurkevica, a Lithuanian national, should not have reaching into the machine.

'Defects known'

The company admitted failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery and failing to make a sufficient risk assessment of the Multivac machine.

Tulip, which is based in Warwick, was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,523.

Speaking after the case, Health and Safety Executive inspector Steven Gill said the defects in the guarding had been identified in the company's own safety audit reports but nothing was done about them.

"There should also be systems in place to ensure that workers, including workers whose first language is not English, have appropriate instruction and training on the use of machinery," he added.