A COMPANY has been fined £7,500 after an employee lost the tip of his finger in an industrial accident at its Skipton factory.

Dales Pharmaceuticals Ltd, of Talke Pits, Stoke-on-Trent, pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to provide a safe system of work on January 21.

The company produces human pharmaceuticals as well as a wide range of veterinary products.

Inspector of the Health and Safety Executive Paul Stanworth told the court that employee Robert Dryden had the tip of his left index finger amputated after trapping it in machinery.

He had only been working at the company for three and a half months, and was operating an MG2 encapsulating machine, which can produce up to 30 capsules an hour.

Mr Stanworth said the machine had numerous moving parts, which were capable of causing injury, but were enclosed by a Perspex screen. An interlocking device was fitted that could only be overridden by a small key.

The key was usually only made available to engineers at the plant, but had been left out for about two weeks prior to the incident. Mr Dryden had used it to open the machine up after it started to make noises. He subsequently got his finger caught in the machinery.

In mitigation, managing director Mike Annice told the court the company, which employed 80 people, had an excellent health and safety record and this was the first incident he had come across in 11 years.

He added there were many safe systems in place at the company, which also had an active health and safety committee.

He said the company regretted the incident and had learned from what had happened, implementing new safety systems.

He added that Mr Dryden had received training and had been working under the supervision of an experienced engineer.

Mr Annice said: "We do not pay lip service to health and safety because if nothing else we want to protect our most valuable asset, that being our workforce."

Magistrates said they appreciated the fact there had been no similar incidents at the company in the past 11 years and that all the necessary safeguards and systems were now in place.

However, they added this was a serious incident and that a man had lost the tip of his index finger.

The company was ordered to pay costs of £756.