De La Rue International has been fined 5,000 and must pay over 2,000 in costs after a worker was badly injured at its Portals mill in Bathford, Bath.


Employee Jonathan Rich suffered a severe break
to his forearm after he was dragged into machinery while working on the PFS Slitter on 14 January 2000.


His jumper snagged on a rotating bolt, pulling him into the machine, while he marked a defect on a paper reel on the slitter.


"We pleaded guilty as charged and the lessons learned were immediately put in place," said Portals Bathford managing director Simon Jarvis.


"We had - until this incident - an excellent safety record and are fully committed to ongoing health and safety improvements." A guard was put in place to cover the rotating bolt after the incident.


De La Rue was fined 4,000 for failing to comply with section 2:1 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and 1,000 for contravening regulation 3:1 of the management of the Health & Safety at Work regulations 1999.


A campaign to reduce accidents in the paper industry by 50% over three years involves the Paper Federation, the HSE and the GPMU.


GPMU national health and safety advisor Bud Hudspith said he supported prosecution as "we still have a steady flow of accidents being reported".


Rich has since returned to work at the mill.


Story by Andy Scott