NESTLE UK must pay a court bill of more than £800,000 after an employee suffered life-changing injuries at one of its factories.

It was the second time in two years the chocolate manufacturer, which runs the Haxby Road chocolate factory in York, has been prosecuted over safety problems at its plants.

Last year it was ordered to pay £666,234 after a worker was dragged into an machine on the After Eight production line and suffered a double fracture of his arm.

It was also fined in 1994 after a worker was injured in a mixing machine at the York factory.

The latest incident happened at Nestle's factory at Rowan Drive, Fawdon, Newcastle-upon-Tyne on November 30, 2020, when a maintenance technician was drawn into a roller mechanism on a conveyor machine.

Nestle UK Ltd of City Place, Gatwick, West Sussex, pleaded guilty to breaching work equipment safety regulations and was fined £800,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7776.50 and a statutory surcharge of £190.

South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard how when the technician was investigating a problem on the conveyor belt of a machine used to make chocolate sweets his sleeve was caught in a roller, which dragged his left arm into the machine, trapping it between the roller and a conveyor belt.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the incident found that the company had not properly assessed the risk created by the rollers under the conveyor belt and failed to guard the roller, which was a dangerous part.

After the hearing, HSE inspector William Gilroy said: “This incident could easily have been avoided had Nestle properly reviewed the safety measures on their plant and equipment to ensure that access to dangerous parts was prevented.

“Nestle were aware of this risk following a similar incident at their Halifax plant but failed to take appropriate action.”

In 2021, Nestle UK was fined £640,000 at Bradford Crown Court and ordered to pay £26,234 in costs over an incident on February 13, 2016 at its site on Albion Mills, Halifax.

A technical operator placed his right hand close to a gap in the machine housing. An emery cloth held in his right hand was dragged into the machine taking his arm with it.

He was unable to reach any of the emergency stop buttons located around the machine from the position in which he was trapped, the court was told. He had to be released from the machine by paramedics and suffered a double compound fracture to his arm that required surgery.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had failed to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of the machine.

Read about the 2021 court case involving Nestle here