A UK manufacturing company has been fined £160,000 after a maintenance engineer suffered serious injuries when his arm became trapped in a moving conveyor belt. The incident, which occurred on 18 March 2025 at Factory Services UK Limited in Knowsley, United Kingdom, resulted in a prosecution by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 8 September 2026.
Trapped through an unguarded opening
According to the HSE investigation, the maintenance engineer’s arm became caught in a running conveyor belt through an unauthorised hole in the machine housing, which had been drilled into the structure years earlier. This hole created ongoing exposure for workers to the machine’s moving, dangerous parts, without adequate guarding in place. At the moment of the accident, the victim was unable to free himself immediately: he waved at a security camera for forty seconds in an attempt to attract attention and get help, before managing to free himself.
The engineer sustained catastrophic injuries to his forearm and hand, including fractures and extensive degloving injuries (the tearing away of layers of skin and tissue). He underwent multiple surgeries and blood transfusions and has not returned to work.
Breach of duty of care
The court in Warrington ruled that Factory Services UK Limited had breached Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the core provision requiring UK employers to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of their employees. In addition to the £160,000 fine, the company must pay £4,728 in costs.
An HSE inspector stressed after the ruling that proper machine guarding could have prevented the incident: with adequate guarding in place, the engineer would never have been exposed to the dangerous moving parts.
Relevance for EHS professionals
This case highlights a recurring risk in manufacturing environments: unauthorised modifications to machine housings, such as drilled openings, can undermine existing safety measures without being immediately apparent during routine inspections. For EHS professionals, the case underscores the importance of periodic checks on the integrity of machine guarding, documenting and assessing any modification made to existing equipment, and ensuring that emergency stop and alarm systems are genuinely effective when a worker becomes trapped.
Source: Manufacturer fined after worker suffers life-changing injuries in conveyor incident, September 9, 2026
