Hull-based company fined over worker's severed hand
A Hull-based food manufacturer has been fined after two workers had a hand and fingertips severed by machinery.
Equipment at Cranswick Convenience Foods in Barnsley, was "poorly guarded", Barnsley magistrates heard.
James Hardcastle, 32, had his left hand amputated after it became trapped in the rotating knives of an industrial tenderiser in December 2009.
Three months later a colleague severed the ends of two fingers while feeding plastic into a packaging machine.
The factory's parent company Studleigh-Royd Ltd, based in Hull, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £14,000.
The Health and Safety Executive said both incidents were completely avoidable.
Inspector Alison Crank said: "James Hardcastle will be forever scarred by the horrific injuries he sustained at Cranswick Convenience Foods.
"The incidents that led to his and another employee's injuries three months later were completely avoidable.
"Studleigh-Royd has rightly been held to account for not doing more to ensure its machinery was effectively guarded to protect its workforce.
"I hope today's prosecution serves to remind all involved in food manufacturing that machinery guarding is of paramount importance at all times, and that robust procedures for providing and maintaining effective guarding are necessary in order to identify and eradicate potential risk."