A FOOD company has been ordered to pay nearly £6,000 after a woman’s fingers were crushed in a cutting device.

The worker was feeding a product into a machine used to make crisps at Berkshire Foods Ltd when her left hand became trapped between two rollers.

She suffered serious crush and skin damage to four fingers and underwent an operation, received stitches to her fingers and was in hospital for a week, Fareham Magistrates Court was told.

Despite the treatment, the worker, from Founders Way in Gosport, still has nerve damage and has not been able to return to work since.

After the incident, on October 29 last year, a Health and Safety Executive inspec-tor examined the machine and served a Prohibition Notice preventing further use until it had adequate protection over the rollers.

Reading-based Berkshire Foods admitted breaching part of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

It was fined £3,300 and ordered to pay costs of £2,400.