A food manufacturing company has been ordered to pay out £94,523 in fines and court costs after a worker suffered a severe injury to his hand.

Ludmila Jurkevica, 27, from King’s Lynn, was attempting to clear a blockage in a packaging machine when three of his fingers got crushed.

Tulip Packaging of Warwick was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,523 over the injury, which occurred in November 2007.

Speaking after the verdict at Norwich Crown Court, Health and Safety Executive inspector Steven Gill said: "This was a nasty incident which could have been avoided had the company checked how safe the machinery was and taken precautions to protect staff.

"Machines like these can be incredibly dangerous and cause serious injury."

In a similar incident heard in court last month, Orica UK of Wigan was fined £10,000 after an employee lost two fingers when trying to remove a blockage from a machine.