An engineering firm has been fined £5,000 after a worker was badly injured when he became entangled in a rotating machine tool that caught him by the neck, tearing the clothes from his back.

Tomas Cisarik, 33, suffered a deep cut running 20cms long and 8cms wide on his back, a cracked foot bone and severe friction burns from his neck down his left arm and to his wrist.

It happened at P Craven Engineering Co Ltd’s Heckmondwike factory in Walkley Lane on September 7 last year when Mr Cisarik had gone into the machine to clean up metal shavings, but got pulled into the mechanics.

Huddersfield magistrates heard from health and safety prosecutors that Mr Cisarik was lucky not to have been killed or paralysed. His colleagues had heard him screaming and had seen him trying to climb out of a side door.

The machine should have stopped as Mr Cisarik entered the machine, but the court heard the interlock switches had intentionally been disabled, wrongly signalling that the machine door was closed and giving unguarded access to dangerous machinery.

After the incident the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) served four prohibition notices on the company, banning the use of the CNC rotating machine and three other machines because of inadequate guarding of dangerous equipment. Interlock switches on two other CNC machines were also found to be broken.

HSE Inspector Andrea Jones said: “This horrific incident was entirely preventable. P Craven Engineering Ltd failed to put vital, but very straightforward, measures in place to protect its workforce. The machine should have been provided with working interlocked guards that stop the movement of dangerous parts when opened. Tomas Cisarik was very lucky not to be paralysed or killed.”

Mr Cisarik has now nearly fully recovered and is back working for a different company.

P Craven Engineering Co Ltd of Woodlands Road, Batley, admitted contravening the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 at its Walkley Lane and as well as the fine, was ordered to pay £2,302 in costs.