A Leeds-based printing company – The Lettershop Ltd – has been forced to pay over £25,000 after its failure to observe health and safety laws resulted in one of its workers severing his thumb.
The 46-year-old worker at the centre of the case had been working at the company’s premises, completing a print run for a supermarket client’s promotional material.
While working on the gluing machine, he reached over to one of the rollers so he could remove some loose inserts.
However, by doing so his thumb got trapped in a component that should have been guarded, which meant that the flesh was lanced off his thumb, along with part of the bone.
The worker had to undergo a skin graft to repair his thumb.
An inspection by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company was guilty of numerous safety shortcomings, and it had also failed to implement many of the changes it had ordered in an earlier enforcement notice.
The Lettershop was prosecuted at Leeds Crown Court after the investigation also revealed that protective guards were missing from machines and that workers were not given sufficient training on how to use equipment, among other issues.
The company was served with a fine for £18,000 and was also ordered to pay £9,516 in costs, after admitting a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.