The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a Lincolnshire-based pet food company after a worker sustained injuries to his finger in a workplace accident.

In January 2009, 50-year-old employee Paul Knowles from Skegness was working on a bagging machine at pet food company Fold Hill Foods Ltd, when he noticed that the film that forms the bags was not running through the machine correctly and needed to be adjusted.

Mr Knowles opened the door on the front of the machine, at which point a safety cut-out switch should have stopped the machine. 

Unfortunately – and unbeknown to Mr Knowles – the safety device was not working, but by coincidence the machine had come to a pre-programmed halt in its cycle and had therefore stopped of its own accord.

Mr Knowles put his fingers on to a belt to test its tension, when the machine restarted – pulling his fingers into the mechanism. He suffered a deep laceration to his middle finger and was off work for some time.

On Monday (12/04/10) at Boston Magistrates’ Court in Lincolnshire, Fold Hill Foods Ltd of Old Leake, near Boston, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 (3) (c) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 for not making sure the machinery’s protection devices were working.

The company was fined £1,250 and ordered to pay £1,545 costs.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Scott Wynne said that Mr Knowles was ‘very lucky’ not to have suffered more serious injuries.

‘Protection devices are there for a very good reason – to stop accidents such as this occurring,’ he said.

‘I hope this case serves a reminder to other companies of the need to ensure that such devices are in good working order and are efficiently maintained.’

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