A joinery firm in Kent has been fined after one of its employees lost the tip of their left middle finger through working on an unguarded piece of machinery.
The 31-year-old man, who has asked not to be named, is an employee of North Quay Trading Limited in Whitstable and was working with the machinery when the incident took place in November 2013.
The firm was prosecuted last week (27th January) after an investigation was launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), finding that a safety guard on the machinery had been removed and not replaced.
Canterbury Magistrates’ Court heard how the man was using an overhead router in order to manually machine a rebate on some door panels. As he approached the third or fourth panel, however his left hand slipped and he came into contact with the cutting tool.
The investigation established that whilst a guard for the machine was available, it had been removed when there was a change in tooling and it had not been refitted, meaning other workers had also been put at risk.
North Quay Trading Limited was fined £2,000 along with costs of £766 after it pleaded guilty to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.