A FORMER company boss was fined £6,500 on Monday, july 28, after admitting breaching health and safety regulations that led to the death of a Markyate firm's worker.

Lathe operator Steven Hughes, 29, was hit on the head by a piece of flying machinery and died from his injury.

His boss, Jonathan Bygate, was prosecuted as a result of the tragedy by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Bygate, of Rose Court, Eaton Bray, had been one of four directors who ran Markyate Precision Engineering, which since Mr Hughes's death has gone into liqidation.

Bygate was the one to find himself in the dock at St Albans Crown Court because as works manager it was his duty to address the failings that showed up when the HSE carried out an investigation.

As a result he pleaded guilty to a charge that he failed to ensure the health and safety at work of his employees in June 2001.

Mr Hughes died when he was struck by one of the three jaws on a lathe that had detached itself from the device holding it in place.

It flew through the air, smashing through a protective screen, before slamming into Mr Hughes's head.

Mr Hughes had been due to marry shortly before he died and he was helping a colleague repair a broken hydraulic brake on the lathe when the incident happened.

The pair had been testing the machine when the jaw flew off. But a subsequent investigation revealed the screen or panel the jaw crashed through was not the type specified in the lathe manufacturer's manual and that it was too flimsy.

The proper screen should have consisted of two layers, one of glass and the other of polycarbonated plastic and could have prevented the lathe's jaw from reaching Mr Hughes.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Findlay Baker said there should have been a safer screen in use on the lathe. He said maintenance procedures had not been undertaken and a proper risk assessment had not been carried out. In addition he said staff had not received adequate training.

Bygate was given three months to pay the fine or risk imprisonment.

Friends and family of Mr Hughes were in the public gallery to see Bygate sentenced.

The judge said no sentence he could pass could make up for the loss of life and the grief and sorrow Mr Hughes's family and friends were now going through.