Southend-on-Sea Magistrates’ Court heard that on 10 June 2015 Felix Trefas, 27, a welder for F. Brazil Reinforcements Ltd, was making large steel reinforcing cages which were moved by overhead travelling cranes.

When one of these cranes broke down, a colleague asked Trefas to climb more than six metres up the crane supports to re-set the controls.

While Trefas was resetting the faulty crane, his left leg was crushed when he came into contact with another overhead crane. His leg was later amputated below the knee.

The District Judge heard the overhead cranes were poorly maintained so that workers regularly had to work at height to re-set them and during the night shift this often involved workers climbing the crane support column

Summing up he said this “horrific accident should never have happened” and that the company “should have had systems in place” to identify that unsafe access to the cranes was regularly occurring.

The court also heard the toilet and washing facilities for workers were in an extremely poor and dirty condition despite having been the subject of previous enforcement action by HSE.

F. Brazil Reinforcements Ltd of Canvey Island pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was fined £277,000  and ordered to pay £11,904 costs.

After the hearing, HSE Inspector Sue Matthews said: “It is essential that lifting equipment is properly maintained and that safe systems of work are in place for work at height. Employers have a duty to ensure that welfare facilities are kept clean.

“Felix is incredibly lucky that he was not killed in this incident but he has suffered permanent life-changing injuries.

“This preventable workplace accident has changed the life of a previously fit and hard-working young man irrevocably.”