A TEENAGE worker had part of his arm severed after being left to clean an extraction machine while it was still switched on, a court heard.

Tom Harrocks, 17, had his left arm amputated following the accident at Wenban-Smith timber merchants in Worthing.

Firefighters struggled for more than an hour to free him after he was pulled into the machine, which feeds wood waste from a holding tank.

Worthing magistrates heard the machine was left switched on as the teenager carried out maintenance work on December 22 last year.

Company director Harry Honsa pleaded guilty to failing to take measures to prevent access to dangerous machinery, failing to ensure that all employees received adequate training to use the equipment, and failing to make suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to employees.

After hearing evidence brought by the Health and Safety Executive, magistrates decided to refer the case to Chichester Crown Court, feeling the maximum £5,000 fine they could impose on each count was too small a penalty.

Mr Harrocks, now 18, was working with colleague Brian Southgate in a wood waste extraction silo at the firm's site in Dominion Way, Worthing.

Mr Southgate left the scene to get an oil can and suddenly heard a succession of screams.

John Joseph, prosecuting for the Health and Safety executive, said: "Mr Southgate got half-way down a ladder and heard Mr Harrocks screaming.

"He was caught up in the mechanism of the rotating arms.

"He received serious injuries which have resulted in him having his left arm amputated above the elbow. He is very lucky to be alive.

"Mr Southgate carried on to where there is an emergency on and off button for the machine. When he got there, someone had already switched it off."

"If there had been a risk assessment of the task that these two men were asked to complete, then this accident would never have happened."

Paramedics and a doctor had to give the youth painkillers as firefighters cut through the machinery.

Lee Hills, defending, said: "The silo is cleaned once a year and Mr Southgate had been told to ensure the machine was switched off.

"The company has been extremely upset by what has happened. They immediately contacted the family to comfort them."

Mr Harrocks, of Upton Gardens, Worthing, has been on full pay since the accident.

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