A KEIGHLEY company has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling almost £20,000 for exposing members of its workforce to illegal noise levels for more than seven years.

Fibreline Ltd, upholstery suppliers of Hard Ings Road, pleaded guilty at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court last month to failing to ensure the health of employees in part of the factory where the machinery was too loud.

The case was sent to Bradford Crown Court because magistrates felt their sentencing powers were insufficient.

Rebecca Hirst, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, told the crown court yesterday an inspector found that noise levels in the feather and foam production areas were significantly above the legal limit.

The well-established company should have provided personal ear protectors for 40 staff most at risk, Miss Hirst said.

She told the court: "From 2006 onwards, there was very little regard to the level of noise that was going on in the factory.

"It was a wholesale breach of regulations with damage to hearing foreseeable."

Miss Hirst conceded there was no proof that anyone's hearing had been damaged and no suggestion that the company put its profits above its obligations.

Barrister John Harrison, representing Fibreline, said it had been trading for 32 years and had a good safety record.

There was prompt admission of its responsibility and a timely guilty plea.

Although Fibreline had a very significant turnover, profits were subject to "an uncertain trading pattern."

When staff members watched their new feather pillow production machine being tested in Denmark, the operators were not wearing ear protectors. It was this machinery, installed in 2008, and changes made in 2011 when foam spray booths were moved together, that upped the noise levels.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the Health and Safety Executive had been content for the case to stay at the lower court.

Fibreline was a long-established local company that had never been prosecuted before.

In 2006, when new noise regulations came in, it employed an independent firm to perform a risk assessment, but that turned out to be "wholly and clearly inadequate."

"There was a risk to the hearing of a very significant number of the 145 employees, and 40 were subjected to a very real risk," said the judge.

The company had paid out more than £23,000 to the Health and Safety Executive and co-operated fully with all its requirements.

Judge Durham Hall said it provided a valuable service in a highly competitive field and there was no profligacy in its salary structure.

Fibreline was fined £15,000, with £4,457 costs, all payable in 28 days.