THE wife of a man paralysed from the neck down in a work accident says the £3,500 fine imposed on the company for breach of safety regulations is too lenient.

Karen Dodds, whose husband Michael, 24, nearly lost his life when he stumbled to avoid falling glass, said: "Nothing can describe what we have been through.

"We had married just under a year and had plans for the future. All that has had to change.

"We are disappointed with the outcome. We were expecting the fine to be much higher. A couple of weeks ago a firm was fined £4,000 when a worker lost a finger."

Mrs Dodds was speaking after Romag Ltd, which makes laminated glass for the security industry, was convicted by North Durham magistrates of failing to ensure the safety of an employee at its premises on the Leadgate Industrial Estate, near Consett, on April 30 last year.

The firm, which admitted the charge, was ordered to pay £1,775 costs.

The mother of two of Dipton, near Stanley, said: "I found out after the accident that I was pregnant.

"When surgeons were preparing him for an operation I was told the chances of him surviving were 50/50.

"On the one hand I had the joy of a baby and on the other the possibility of losing my husband."

Emma Scott, prosecuting, said Mr Dodds, who had joined the workforce only weeks earlier, was trying to carry a load of 24 sheets of glass on an A-frame trolley.

As he tried to pick it up 20 of the sheets started to fall towards him, so he stumbled backwards to avoid the glass and fell badly, breaking the 3rd and 4th vertebrae of his spine.

It was accepted it was the awkward manner in which he fell that caused such tragic consequences.

But Miss Scott said an A-frame trolley should not have been used to carry such a load and the glass was not strapped on.

Simon Antrobus, counsel for Romag, said the company, which had no previous convictions, had regularly issued guidelines to staff and produced memoes sent to staff reminding them of regulations. The Dodds family, who say Mr Dodds should have been supervised as a probationary, are pursuing a claim for damages.