A COUPLE who ran a firm where an apprentice was left with a permanent disfigurement to his hand after a circular saw accident have been left with an £18,000 legal bill.

Rookie joiner Simon Davies, 20, was making a cabinet at Village Pine in Newchurch Road, Stacksteads when the wood slipped and his hand was drawn into a moulding machine, Reedley magistrates heard.

An artery was severed in his left index finger and Mr Davies required an operation which left his finger shortened. He has since left joinery and now works for HMV in Burnley, the court was told.

Earlier Mr Davies had also hurt his thumb while using a circular saw unsupervised, leading to a series of warnings being issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Company partners Kenneth Bramhall, 51, and Gill Brown, 64, both of Old Trough Gate Farm, Tong Lane, Britannia, near Bacup, each admitted two health and safety offences of failing to ensure adequate protection and training for Mr Davies.

Magistrates fined them £6,000 each and ordered both of them to pay £1,000 compensation to their former apprentice, with £2,000 costs of the HSE prosecution each.

Bench chairman Graham Jagger said: "It was two incidents within three months and we have found that there was a risk to the health of employees in this case."

Defence lawyers previously claimed that the couple had placed too much responsibility in the works manager and foreman at the firm, in carrying out training, to their cost.

John Tyler, in mitigation, said Valley Pine was now 'dead in the water' and was only being kept afloat using funding from a Britannia care home run by the pair, called Choices for Children.

Michael Mullen, prosecuting for the HSE, said the accident could have been prevented by the machinery being fitted with adequate guards and backstops.