A Tesco employee had part of two fingers chopped off when he put his hand inside a faulty dough-dividing machine.
The incident happened on 22 February 2007 at the in-store bakery in a Tesco store in Cheltenham. An employee put his hand inside the hopper of the machine, in order to clear some dough, but the power supply had not been cut and the machine activated, slicing the top section from two fingers on his right hand.
An investigation into the incident revealed that the interlock switch had become unattached from the side of the machine. Tesco was aware of the fault and the interlock was re-attached to the machine by tying it together with a plastic bag. This allowed the device to operate when the lid was open and meant that the power supply was live when the employee put his hand inside the machine.
Tesco pleaded guilty at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on 8 December to breaching s2(1) of the HSWA 1974 and was fined £15,000. It also pleaded guilty to breaching reg11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and was fined £5000. The firm was ordered to pay £20,000 costs to Gloucester City Council, which prosecuted the case.
In mitigation, Tesco said it deeply regretted the accident and said it was an isolated incident. It told the court that the machine has now been taken out of service and employees have been retrained on how to use similar machines.
Gloucester City Council senior environmental health officer, Ed Pomfret, told SHP: “We hope this will serve as a warning to other businesses; interlocks are there for a reason and should not be by-passed. As this case shows, accidents unfortunately still happen even in larger companies with policies and procedures — where such failures are found.”
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