Liverpool Crown Court heard how an employee of S. Evans and Sons Limited was injured when the managing director, who was operating machinery to stack the girders, dropped one of the girders onto the employee’s arms, resulting in amputation to the employee’s left arm and right hand.

An HSE investigation into the incident, which occurred on the 19 October 2015, found the company failed to apply appropriate control measures including ensuring the right equipment for the task was used.

Managing director Samuel Evans was directly involved in the incident and found personally responsible for both the choice of equipment and the manner in which the task was performed.

S. Evans and Sons Limited of Ditton Road, Widnes pleaded to safety breaches and was fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,523.04.

Company director Samuel Evans also pleaded guilty to safety breaches and was sentenced to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

HSE inspector Rohan Lye said after the hearing: “If the company and its director had taken basic steps to decide how to do this routine task, and what control measures to use, they could have prevented this devastating incident resulting in an employee suffering life-changing injuries.”