A Hampshire baker has been fined £500 and ordered to pay costs of £300 after being found guilty of breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations SI 1998/2306 when a teenage employee had his fingers crushed in a machine.
Peter Ellis of Belinda's Bakery was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a result of the incident that happened in November 2010. The young employee was working at a dough moulder, which has two rollers which move the dough through the machine.
Whilst working on the machine, he put his hand between the rollers and suffered crush injuries on his right hand as well as receiving cuts to his middle and index fingers. A HSE investigation revealed that the machine was not properly guarded, which meant there was no protection from access to the machines moving parts. However, immediately after the incident, Mr Ellis reinstalled the guard on the machine, as it was removed two years earlier.
HSE inspector Craig Varian said, "The risks from these types of machines are well known in the industry and this incident could have resulted in far worse injuries." He added, "Immediately following the incident Mr Ellis installed a guard which cuts the power to the machine, but had the guarding been in place the employee would not have been able to have accessed the dangerous parts of the machinery and we would not be in court today."
