A BUSINESSMAN from Bury has been left with a £1,280 fine after an employee's finger was trapped in machinery.

Christopher Ellor's Eccles-based firm Dealercast was also fined £20,000 with £3,661 court costs by Manchester magistrates over the March 2019 incident.

Magistrates heard a worker at the handrail manufacturing company was drawn into a roller and crushed.

The court was told the employee was being trained by Ellor to use a rolling machine to bend pieces of steel tube.

But while the employee was feeding tubing between the rollers of the machine, the heavy-duty gloves he was wearing caught between the tubing and one of the rollers.

His hand was drawn into the machine injuring his little finger, which later had to be amputated from the second knuckle, the court heard.

Later an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had not performed a machine-specific risk assessment. This meant the risk of entanglement in moving parts had not been highlighted. The employee had no previous experience of working on this type of machine and had not completed training.

The company and Ellor admitted to offences under the Health and Safety At Work Act. Ellor also had to pay £3,461 in costs.

Later HSE inspector Peter Lennon said: “Employers should ensure they carry out an assessment of the risks and put in place a safe system of work for the operation of all machinery. Firms should be aware of the responsibility upon company directors to recognise the way in which employees are working."