A Lincolnshire waste haulage firm that entered administration earlier this year has now been fined £1.275m after an incident in which an employee lost part of his arm.
Lincoln Crown Court heard how in 2015 the employee of Mid-UK Recycling was working as a line operator and removing waste from an axle on a conveyor belt when his glove was dragged into the in-running nip between the belt and the powered roller.
It resulted in his arm being amputated above the elbow.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to prevent access to dangerous parts of the conveyor.
Mid-UK Recycling suffered fire and loss-making contract ahead of pre-pack
It discovered that the castell key system had essentially been bypassed allowing the system to be operated in automatic mode with persons still inside the enclosure.
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Mid-UK Recycling, now known as MUKR, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £1.275 million and ordered to pay costs of £45,065.59.
HM inspector Scott Wynne said: “This incident could so easily have been avoided had the company ensured that the system designed to keep people away from dangerous machinery was properly maintained.”
In September, Motor Transport reported how a substantial fire and a significantly loss-making contract were two of the main causes behind MUKR’s administration.
A pre-packaged sale of the company’s business and assets was agreed in June to a subsidiary of utilities group Beauparc.
