Thorntons fined for machine safety failings

Health & Safety Update 11/01/2012

High street chocolatier, Thorntons, has been handed a £20,000 fine after a worker at the company's Derbyshire factory had her hand dragged into one of the machines as she was cleaning it.

The incident involving the 37-year-old worker - which resulted in numerous cuts and a fractured middle finger - prompted a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) audit, which then found that a number of the factory's machines had inadequate safety protection.

The company pleaded guilty to safety failings before Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court, and was handed the £20,000 fine as well as prosecution costs of £7,680.

The court heard that the worker, during a break in production, had attempted to clean the output chute of the machine involved in the wrapping of chocolates, which had become coated in caramel. The cloth she was using became caught in some rotating parts and her hand was dragged into the machine. Her injuries meant she had to take ten weeks off work.

HSE inspector Stuart Parry said the company had failed in its duty to provide a safe working environment for its workers.

"Thorntons should never have allowed the machinery guarding to fall below the legal safety standards," Parry said. "It was effectively asking its employees to work on machines that put them at risk of injury."

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