A plastics manufacturer from Cambridgeshire has been fined and given a suspended sentence after a worker died after she was crushed by printing machinery.

Peterborough Crown Court heard how a 23-year-old agency worker from Lithuania was working in a print room for Gordon Leach, who trades as RGE Engineering Company.

On 27 April 2012, the worker entered the printing machine to apply thinners to the ink when the machine started. Her head was crushed between the printing pads and the printing table of the machine, fatally injuring her.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident found that there was no effective system of guarding to the machine and the incident could have been prevented.

Gordon Leach (trading as RGE Engineering Company), of The Avenue, Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was given a 15 month sentence, suspended for 24 months, was fined £7,500 and was ordered to pay full costs of £45,000.

For further information on machinery safeguards visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/

Notes to Editors:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. More about the legislation referred to in this case can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ 
3. HSE news releases are available at http://press.hse.gov.uk