BOLTON bakery Warburtons has been fined £2 million after a worker suffered life-changing injuries after a fall.

Andrew Sears was cleaning a mixing machine at one of the firm’s factories in November 2013 when he lost his footing and fell nearly two metres, a court heard.

The father-of-one, who had worked at the factory in Wednesbury in the West Midlands since 2007, suffered a compression fracture in his spine.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard he was unable to continue in his old role and was later dismissed after another long period of sick leave.

Warburtons Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the incident and pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulation 2005.

The firm was fined £2 million and ordered to pay costs of £19,609.28.

A health and safety investigation found that Warburtons routinely expected workers to access the top of the mixers for cleaning, often leaving the workers unbalanced.

The HSE said that staff were not adequately supervised and that the company failed to control the risk of falls from height when carrying out this routine cleaning activity.

HSE inspector Mahesh Mahey added: “This case highlights how important it is for companies to fully assess the risks from work activities at height and to take appropriate action to prevent injury in the workplace.

“This should have been prevented, falls from height is one of the biggest killers in the workplace and even falls from fairly low levels can be extremely dangerous.

“Mr Sears life has been changed forever but he his injuries could have been more severe.”

A Warburtons spokesman said: “We take the health and safety of all our people very seriously and are deeply saddened that on this occasion our procedures failed to protect Andrew.

“We have taken the necessary steps to prevent this happening again and will continue to review all health and safety procedures across our business.

“We have a very strong health and safety record across all of our manufacturing and distribution sites and we invest heavily in ensuring an accident free workplace for our employees, often working together with the HSE.”