BURNLEY company Papermarc has been ordered to pay almost £12,000 after pleading guilty to failing to ensure the safety of an employee who got his arm caught in a machine.

The paper and cardboard manufacturer, in Caldervale Road, admitted failing to make a suitable risk assessment in relation to an incident in which Brett Hall, 34, received serious injuries to his right arm and hand and was fined £3,000.

It was also fined £5,000 for its admited failing to ensure the safety of its employees and ordered to pay £3,830 costs.

Mr Hall's right hand and arm were trapped in a paper roller machine on September 29, 2001, while he was working as a roller assistant on the nightshift.

A bone was broken in one of his fingers, he broke his right wrist and the arm muscle and tissue from his forearm was cut away down to the tendons.

Mr Hall, of Venice Avenue, Burnley, has not been able to return to work because of his injuries.

But when deciding on the fines and costs involved, magistrates took into account the company's prompt guilty plea, their good safety record, the fact they had remedied any deficiencies in their health and safety procedures.

Papermarc employs 251 people.

John Batty, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, told the court that although the company had a health and safety risk assessment in place, it was not sufficient.

He said that when the roller machine was at full speed there was no possibility of anyone getting through the interlocking gates surrounding it.

But he said that the company had not addressed the fact that people could get close when the machine was run at a crawling pace. Mr Batty said on September 29, Mr Hall had been working with his colleague, Paul Bell, when he noticed a break in the card on the machine.

When his colleague became trapped, Mr Bell returned to the control panel

He released the pressure on the roller, allowing Mr Hall to free himself from it.

Mr Hall has worked for Papermarc since June 2000 and previously for three years at Smurfit before the management buy-out which resulted in it becoming Papermarc.

In a statement read out by Mr Batty, Mr Hall said: "I don't know how I went in to the machine.

"All I know is that Paul's quick thinking possibly save my arm and my life."

Mark Monaghan, defending, said that the Burnley-based Smurfit had been doing very badly and had a poor health and safety record.

The new management of Papermarc had spent a lot of money on revising procedures.