Firm Fined

The Health and Safety Executive began investigating Triad in February, shortly after 50-year-old Steve Tower injured himself working on an unprotected piece of equipment he had not been trained to use.

Triad manager Les Fuller pleaded guilty to three separate charges of breaching health and safety laws, running up a total of nearly 10,000 in fines and costs.

Mr Fuller said: "We pleaded guilty because we accept we were guilty. We are just very disappointed with the outcome. We were not expecting such heavy fines."

He added: "We have now implemented all the Health and Safety Executive s recommendations and have completed all the necessary risk assessments."

Mr Tower, of Northcourt Close, Rustington, is still in severe pain and finding it hard to come to terms with the horrific incident which led to his injury.

He said: "The pain is still bad. Even now, I can t grip with my left hand or use the keyboard on the computer."

Mr Tower had been asked to perform a fairly routine operation using a router blade.

He had not been trained how to use it and the machine was missing its guard.

A few minutes later, he was in agony. His left hand had been pulled into the blade, damaging his bones and ligaments.

Two work colleagues took him to Worthing Hospital, from where he was rushed to the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, for emergency re-constructive surgery.

Mr Tower, who has worked for Triad for the last 15 years, hopes to return to work later on in the new year.

For failure to ensure training was given for the use of equipment at work, Triad was fined 1,500 and was fined 2,500 for failing to prevent access to a dangerous part of machinery.

And the firm was fined 2,000 for failing to carry out suitable risk assessments, as well as being ordered to pay costs of 3,433.