Arrow Flexible Packaging was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay £1,000 in prosecution costs at a hearing at Trafford Magistrates Court on Friday (28 October).

The court heard that Karen Schoelzel, 53 from Golborne, was replacing the rubber insert under a cutting tool on 23 November 2010 when the machine started operating. The tool came down on her left hand and, as a result, she lost her entire index finger and her middle finger to below the second knuckle.

HSE issued six Improvement Notices and one Prohibition Notice after an inspector visited the site following the incident.

The notices required safety improvements to be made to machines at the factory, and prevented a press from operating until suitable guards had been installed.

The HSE investigation found suitable guards were not in place to prevent workers gaining access to the cutting tool while the machine was operating, and that it was common practice for employees to change the rubber on the tool without the power to the machine being cut.

However, it was unable to confirm what caused the machine to start operating when the rubber insert was being replaced, but it found the buttons which operated it were unsuitable and could have been pressed by accident.

Schoelzel said: "I can no longer do the job that I did, and will be limited to the types of jobs I can do in the future. I am affected by how I do everyday things such as gardening, shopping and even eating, because using cutlery is difficult.

"I used to go out socialising once a fortnight and now I don’t want to go. I haven’t been out socially since my accident happened. During the first three months, I didn’t leave the house except to go to the hospital to have my dressings changed.

"I saw a psychiatrist quite soon after the accident to help me come to terms with it because, at that point, I couldn’t and wouldn’t look at my injury."

Arrow Flexible Packaging declined to comment.