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Company fined after worker's fingertip is severed

A Cardiff manufacturing company has been fined after a worker lost the tip of a finger while using an unguarded drill.

Vaughan Thomas, 21, from Caerphilly, was working at MIB Manufacturing Limited's factory on Rising Sun Industrial Estate, Blaina, when the incident happened on 26 April 2011.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the company which produces light steel frames and panels for the building industry, after an investigation revealed it had failed to ensure its workers were protected from dangerous parts of machinery.

Abergavenny Magistrates Court heard it was Mr. Thomas' first time working at the Blaina factory and he had been sent there to work on placing and tightening bolts and screwing boards onto steel panels. However the panels were not yet ready and Mr. Thomas was instead sent to help another employee who was drilling holes into steel frames.

On 18 June, MIB Manufacturing Ltd. (now known as Blaina Manufacturing Ltd.) of Rhymney River Bridge Road, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,947. The company was also ordered to pay £3,000 in compensation to Mr Thomas.

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