A WORKER had her finger mangled in a production line machine at a seat belt manufacturer, a court heard yesterday.

Catherine Tempest, 23, was left with five fractures in her finger when the seat belt threading machine clamped down on her arm.

Hartlepool magistrates court heard how a machine used to drive plastic bolts into the seat belt gripped her right hand and pinned her finger down using massive force.

TRW Systems, based in Cook Way North West Industrial Estate, Peterlee, pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety regulations at the plant during the incident on December 6 last year.

David Shallow, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, described how the company could have prevented the accident but allowed workers to ignore previous training and double up on machinery designed for just one operator.

When Ms Tempest went to help a colleague on the threading machine, he failed to notice that her hand was under a protective guard when he activated it.

Mr Shallow said: "The guard came down and clamped her hand there. Then the machine came down with a force of 103 pounds per square inch. That's more than three times the average pressure in a car tyre.

"It fractured the second finger on her right hand in five places and she had to have six weeks off work to recover."

The company, which has manufactured 30 million seatbelts at the site in the last five years, had no previous prosecutions, but was told yesterday to pay a £3,000 fine and £852 court costs.

Dave Gilliland, representing the firm, admitted the company should have done more to prevent two people using the machines at once, but some people 'knowingly exposed themselves to risk of danger'.