The company, which printed the best selling Harry Potter books, has also been ordered to pay costs totalling £12,000.

"Clays has received fines consistent with the failure to manage health and safety issues at their site in Bungay," HSE Inspector Jon Elven said.

"The company has exposed both employees and sub contractors to potentially dangerous situations and HSE will not hesitate to take action against those who fall short of the law in such a serious way."

The firm pleaded guilty to a total of six charges at Lowestoft Magistrates' Court yesterday for offences dating back as far as July 2005 when one of the company's electricians slipped and fell 7m onto a metal cage after stepping on a skylight while supervising contractors who were on site to repair a roof-mounted air conditioning unit.

As a result, the employee sustained multiple injuries causing him to be off work for several months. An HSE investigation of the accident found that Clays had failed to provide proper training to the electrician, failed to put proper safety measures in place, and failed to carry out a risk assessment of the work.

The HSE served the company with an improvement notice in August 2005; however a company engineer sustained injuries, including three broken ribs and two broken fingers, when he fell from a ladder in February 2006.

Despite the court hearing evidence that the employee may have climbed to the top of the ladder and overstretched – even though the ladder had a sign saying not to do this – Clays still pleaded guilty to two offences related to failures to assess risks and ensure protection of workers carrying out jobs at height and on ladders.

The company was also found guilty of offences relating to unauthorised workers having access to keys that could override safety features on machines, and employees working on racking at the company's warehouse without proper safeguards to prevent falls from height.

Ian Mayers, representing Clays in court, said the company has already spent £200,000 on safety improvements and had introduced a zero tolerance policy on dangerous behaviour of staff.

In a statement, Clays managing director Kate McFarlane said: "The company is dedicated to ensuring that the highest standards of health and safety performance are established and maintained."

Each year, printing companies report approximately 1,200 work related accidents to the HSE, with over 200 of these accidents usually classified as major injuries such as fractures and amputations.

However, it's not all bad news. In late 2007, a HSE inspection of printing sites in the North East concluded that conditions are "better than average".

Of the 81 print sites inspected in Leeds, Wakefield and York, only five companies were found in breach of regulations, and only nine enforcement orders, relating to safety guards on equipment, handling of consumables and related risks, ventilation and monitoring, were issued.

The latest figures from HSE for the printing industry also show a 23% reduction in the overall number of serious reportable accidents since 2002.