Store fined after man’s fingers were mangled in meat slicer

A SUPERMARKET operator in Birmingham has been fined £36,000 after a member of staff mangled four fingers in a meat slicer.

The shop worker’s hand became stuck in the mincer’s screw feed mechanism as he fed meat into it on April 12 last year.

The employee had to be cut from the machine by firefighters. However, the feed unit could not be removed from his hand at the premises and he was then taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Medical staff removed the remaining machinery but his hand had been left severely mutilated.

Supermarket MAS Bazar Birming- ham Limited, which operates the store in Lozells Road, Handsworth, pleaded guilty to health and safety offences at Birmingham Magistrates Court.

Birmingham City Council brought the case against MAS Bazar Birmingham Limited.

The company was prosecuted under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

A council spokesman said: “The metal guard, which should have been in place to prevent access to the feeding mechanism, had never been fitted to the machine in the two years it had been in use.”

The court was told that MAS Bazar had also failed to ensure employees had been trained to use the machine by a competent person and that other employees had used the unguarded machine.

In addition to the fine, the company was also ordered to pay court costs of £3,268 and a £120 victim surcharge.