Employee's personal injury sees firm fined £2,000

A security manufacturer has been fined after a work accident left an employee with burns.

SMP Security Ltd, of Halesfield 24, Telford, was also ordered to pay £6,000 in costs after the company admitted breaching Regulation 5(1) of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 at Telford Magistrates' Court.

The prosecution related to a personal injury suffered by Nigel Gibbon, of Telford, on June 28th 2008. Mr Gibbon, 44, was using a flocking machine to add soft lining to a safe.

Issuing accident advice, the Health and Safety Executive said that the firm had not carried out an adequate risk assessment for the work, which resulted in an adhesive spray the worker was using for the task igniting. He was left with second degree burns on his left hand and wrist and needs surgery for the personal injury.

Furthermore, in another work accident this month a teenage worker was burnt while working at an O'Keefe Construction Ltd depot in Sevenoaks, Kent. The firm was fined £20,000 as a result.

Published by Hannah Carr