Bilston firm fined £400,000 after worker loses four fingers in factory accident

Factory worker al Ghazi Sulaiman was using an emery cloth on a rotating lathe to reduce the size of metal rods when disaster struck at Sankey Laminations in Anchor Lane, Bilston.

The 18-year-old had not been properly trained for the job which could have been done more safely on different equipment, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

There had been a 'serious and systemic failure' to assess health and safety risk, said Mr Harpreet Sandhu, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive.

He continued: "This had been allowed to persist for several years and it was through luck that no incidents of this magnitude had occured earlier."

The firm had failed to carry out a risk assessment of the work for three and a half years and did not realise official guidance identifying the dangers of using emery cloth in these circumstances had been issued ten years before Mr Sulaiman was injured on October 15 2014.

The engineering information sheet highlighted the risk of entanglement and warned this method should only be used as a 'last resort' after all other options had been exhausted.

"The guidelines were ignored through lack of knowledge, exposing a number of workers to significant risk," observed Mr Sandhu.

The firm had a grinder which could have completed the same task with less risk but had not considered potentially safer methods of achieving the same result, the court heard.

Mr Sulaiman had been 'encouraged' to use unsuitable gloves which stuck to the emery cloth and had only been shown how to switch the lathe on and off and control its speed, maintained the prosecutor who stressed: "He was operating in a way condoned by the company."

Four of the worker's fingers had to be amputated after his right hand became trapped after coming into contact with a metal bar turning on the lathe at 625 rotations per minute.

He now faced the 'humiliation' of requiring help from his family despite having a prosthetic hand. He was unable to drive and had difficulty finding suitable employment, the judge was told.

Sankey Laminations started to use a grinder for the job after the accident and stopped using both emery cloth and gloves while operating a lathe. The tool room had since been closed while the workforce was cut from 130 to 77, the court heard.

Mr Mark Balysz, defending, said: "Their failure fell through the net of an otherwise good health and safety system. It was not highly likely that this incident would occur."

The 67-year-old company, with a 'good but not exemplary' safety record, admitted two charges of failing to obey health and safety regulations

It was fined by Judge Amjad Nawaz who said: "The dangers must have been all too obvious. There was a high risk of entanglement and endangerment to limbs."