A CHEPSTOW-based company has been fined after a worker suffered injury from machinery on-site.

Newport Magistrates’ Court heard how an employee of Reid Lifting Limited was using an unguarded milling machine to manufacture an aluminium component.

As he tried to brush some debris away, the index finger of his gloved left hand snagged in the rotating tool and it pulled his hand into the tool. He suffered a deep cut to his index finger and severing of his flexor tendon.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which happened on 26th November 2014 found there were no guards fitted to either of two of the company’s milling machines.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Katherine Lawrence said: “Vertical milling machines have the potential to be very versatile and there can be occasions where workpieces that could be completed on the machine might pose challenges to normal safeguarding arrangements. However, the solution is not to remove the machine’s guards and rely on the operator’s skill.”

Reid Lifting Limited, of Newhouse Farm Industrial Estate, Chepstow, Monmouthshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,566.