A Dorset dairy has been prosecuted after an employee was injured when his arm was pulled into a slurry separator.

Andrew James Ray, 47, was cleaning the equipment at the dairy owned by M Hooper and Sons Ltd in Winterborne Tomson on January 2, 2009.

Weymouth Magistrates Court heard an unsafe system of work was used for cleaning the rollers of the slurry separator by using a hose and hand brush while the equipment was running.

Mr Ray’s left arm was subsequently pulled between two contra-rotating rollers, crushing his left hand and arm to the elbow.

The machine was equipped with a self-cleaning mechanism which was not working and was therefore being cleaned manually.

M Hooper & Sons Ltd of Winterbourne Zelston, Blandford, pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety of Work Act and was fined £9,000 and ordered to pay £1,448 in costs.