AN employee's thumb was broken when her glove became caught on a drill which was not protected by a complete guard.

Lesley Boker suffered multiple fractures to her right thumb after the accident at Clarcon Ltd, based at Worcester Trading Estate in Blackpole, Worcester, magistrates heard yesterday.

She had been cutting strips of metal, called "stiffeners", for manhole frames manufactured by the company, and had already made 150 lengths using the Meddings type S 32M drilling machine on the day of the accident.

The 10mm diameter drill should have been fully protected by a telescopic guard, but when the accident happened half of the guard was missing, leaving 98mm of the drill exposed, said Tony Woodward, HM inspector for health and safety prosecuting.

"She made what is, in my experience, a classic mistake - she brushed the swath (waste material) away with her hand," said Mr Woodward.

"Her glove became entangled on the drill and wrapped around it, causing compound fractures to her thumb."

Following the incident on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 9, 2002, another employee, Andrew Davies, was allowed to use the drill on two further occasions, breaking health and safety rules.

"This was not deliberate action to gain financial advantage, this was caused through ignorance and stupidity," said Mr Woodward.

"An individual has not been able to return home in the same condition she arrived to work in and was disabled from working for several weeks."

However, the managers of Clarcon had spent £50,000 addressing health and safety issues since they took over in October 2001, said Simon Morgan, defending.

He told the court "conditions had been Victorian" before the new owners made improvements to health and safety, such as filling in a pit of bitumen which had been a "serious hazard."

The improvements began before the accident and are continuing, he said.

On behalf of the company, Mr Morgan gave a guilty plea to the charges of failing to prevent access to a dangerous part of machinery and failing to ensure the safety of employees.

Clarcon, which employs 35 people, was fined a total of £5,750 and ordered to pay costs of £1,099.

After the hearing, Mrs Boker who still works at Clarcon, said that conditions had greatly improved under the new management.