A Bradford firm has been fined £21,000 after a teenage worker lost a finger in an accident with a machine.

Sixteen-year-old Robert Field was trying to clean the food wrapping machine using a wire brush, when it suddenly began moving and trapped his fingers between the chain and a cog wheel.

He cried out, and a colleague rushed over and lifted a protective guard, which stopped the machine. The youngster briefly lost consciousness as the emergency services battled to release him from the drive mechanism, prosecutor Richard Winter told the city's magistrates yesterday. Mr Field, who had only joined the firm a few months earlier, was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary where the little finger of his left hand had to be amputated. He spent five days there, having several broken fingers pinned.

Top Brand Foods Ltd, of Springmill Street, Bradford, pleaded guilty to three breaches of Health and Safety at Work regulations and was also ordered to pay £1,510 costs.

The court heard that at the time of last December's accident the firm did not have a written safety policy for its 40 employees and had not carried out a proper risk assessment.

"You may well ask why the machine was not fitted with a device that stopped it whenever the drive cover was off,'' Mr Winter told the bench.

Solicitor Tracey Banks, for the firm, said an interlocking safety switch - which was not present when the machine was bought new in 1997 - had since been fitted, along with two extra guards.

But Mr Field had never been asked or expected to get involved in cleaning or operating it.

He had gone over to talk to the woman who was cleaning it and when she was called away he took it upon himself to carry on.

The cleaning method had now been changed and involved the use of a spray, said Miss Banks.