Gary Burke, 45, had his right hand drawn between two rotating metal rollers at the company's North Shields plant in November 2009.

Formica pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was also ordered to pay £4,741.60 in costs.

Burke was checking for any resin deposits on the feed belts of a paper-coating machine, when his glove became caught on a belt and his hand was drawn between two guide rollers.

An investigation by The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that there had been consistent production problems with the machine.

Despite several operations, doctors were unable to save Burke’s little finger, although it is hoped they will be able to reconstruct two of his fingers to restore some function in the long term. 

According to the HSE, the incident has had a substantial impact on his life as he no longer has full use of his hand. While he has returned to work, he has not been able to do his old job and is now on light duties.

HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said: "Production problems, such as misalignment of belts and nicks in the paper, were a regular problem with this machine and had been occurring for a number of years, yet Formica had done little about it.

"It had become custom and practice for workers to try and rectify faults themselves. The incident could have easily been prevented if the company had implemented safe systems of work for fault finding and ensured that guards were in place to prevent access to dangerous moving parts of the machine."

Formica was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.