A FACTORY worker selected for the GB Paralympic team after his leg was amputated following an industrial accident has won a multi-million pound settlement from the County Durham firm where he worked.

Tom Perry was trapped for almost an hour after he was crushed between a fork-lift truck type vehicle and a water tank at Con Mech Engineers in Stanley, County Durham in 2012.

Thompsons Solicitors representing Mr Perry, 35, from Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, said it had secured a seven-figure damages settlement for the ‘life-changing’ injuries he suffered.

The heat treatment machine operative had been operating levers when a colleague unaware that Mr Perry was working nearby started up the vehicle which careered along a track into him trapping both his legs. Conscious throughout the terrifying ordeal, Mr Perry called out to his workmate to reverse the seven tonne equipment but it was stuck.

Firefighters used hydraulic equipment to remove the machinery and free Mr Perry who was taken to University Hospital of North Durham.

“The last thing I remember was lying in a hospital bed, with my legs covered, being asked by doctors whether I could feel anything as they probed my lower limbs,” said Tom.

“I had a small amount of sensation in my left foot but nothing at all on my right side from my toes up to my hip.”

After surgery to amputate his right leg above the knee he was hospitalised for five weeks before starting rehabilitation and getting a top Genium X3 prosthetic limb paid for through an interim compensation payment secured by Thompsons Solicitors.

A keen climber, Mr Perry, now 35, was determined to get back to his favourite sport and in 2013 he was selected for the Team GB Paralympic climbing team.

He said: “The difference having the compensation to fund the new prosthesis made was incredible and helped me on the road back to the things I loved doing before my accident, like climbing.”

Last year Con Mech Engineers was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and fined £20,000 for serious safety failings and £8,045 in costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

It found that the company, based on the Harelaw Industrial Estate, had failed to assess and identify the risk posed to workers from contact with the dangerous moving vehicle and, as a consequence, it had failed to provide effective measures to prevent any contact.

David Robinson, a serious injury specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, added: “The significant damages we secured on his behalf was structured in such a way as to ensure that his long term needs would be met and that he had access to the right support after what was a life-changing injury.”

No-one from Con Mech was available for comment.