THE FORMER owner of a Southampton printing firm has been ordered to pay £1,000 after a teenage girl's fingers were crushed in a binding machine.

Peter Leatherdale, who ran Offset Colour Printers in Empress Road until last year, admitted breaching health and safety regulations when he allowed new employee Michelle Young to operate equipment used to put spiral bindings on calendars.

Michelle, of Beech Avenue in Bitterne Park, who was 17 at the time of the incident, broke one finger and lost a nail when she accidentally turned the machine on while reaching inside it.

Eastleigh magistrates awarded the college-educated worker, who is still employed by Leatherdale, £500 as compensation for the accident on October 5, 1999.

Health and Safety inspectors have welcomed the court's decision for the message it sent out to employers of young people.

Matthew Lee, of the Health and Safety Inspectorate, said: "It reminds employers to look at machines that perhaps they thought were safe and to pay particular attention to young and inexperienced people who are working for them."

Leatherdale, of Bournemouth Road, Chandler's Ford, who is starting up a new business after 30 years in the industry, brought in new safety measures following the accident.

Solicitor Richard Owen-Thomas, representing Leatherdale, said: "His reaction to this accident was very much the sharpening up of his health and safety policy, which is still used by the business despite it being sold on."

After the hearing, Leatherdale told the Echo: "I do not regard this incident as criminal and you can see the level of fine was minor.

"I have never been in the public eye for 30 years and I have never been in court before."

Leatherdale was also fined £300 and ordered to pay £200 costs.