A LAMINATE flooring firm was fined £5,000 after a worker at its Merseyside factory suffered severe injuries to his left hand.

Christopher Sillitoe, 22, from Everton, now has difficulty dressing himself and using a knife and fork, after his hand came into contact with a large circular saw at Universal Mouldings Ltd’s site in Brookfield Drive, Aintree, on August 20 last year.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation into the cause of the incident, which resulted in Mr Sillitoe losing sections of three fingers and breaking his thumb.

He needed a six-hour operation to reattach his fingers and is unlikely to ever regain full movement in his left hand.

Universal Mouldings, which employs 25 people, was fined after admitting two health and safety offences at Liverpool magistrates’ court yesterday.

Mr Sillitoe, who joined the company at the age of 16, has not had a job since the incident and will be unable to return to joinery work in the future.

Jane Carroll, the investigating inspector at HSE, said afterwards: “Workers at Universal Mouldings’ factory were put at risk for more than nine years, and it was inevitable someone would eventually suffer a serious injury.”

The company was ordered to pay £7,500 towards the cost of the prosecution, in addition to the fine.