Pauls Malt Ltd of Bury St Edmunds were found guilty on 14th March 2008 at Scarborough Magistrates Court of a charge under Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. The company was fined £3,000 plus £2098 costs.  The prosecution followed an incident at the Pauls Malt factory in Malton in August 2007, when a worker fell through a machine guard, catching his leg in a rotating screw conveyor. As a result, the worker's leg had to be amputated above the knee.

Health and Safety Inspector Paul Robinson said:

"This was a tragic and entirely avoidable incident. The employer failed to ensure that proper measures were taken to protect the worker and the consequences of that will affect him for the rest of his life.

"Throughout Britain machinery causes around 800 injuries each year in food manufacturing, of which over 100 are very serious or even fatal injuries. The main causes of injury on machines are well known and in most cases are preventable if adequate guarding and other safeguards are in place. Nearly one-third of injuries occur on conveyors of various types so it is particularly important that these are provided with strong and secure guards at points where injuries could occur."