A company fined for an accident that left an employee seriously injured has been ordered to pay more.

Martyn Pope needed a steel plate in his kneecap and ankle, a steel rod in the lower part of his broken leg and steel wires in each of his toes.

At one stage there were fears his toes would have to be amputated.

Graham Wood Structural Limited was fined £15,000 with £1,200 costs by magistrates at Worthing last October.

But yesterday, when the company appealed against the sentence at Chichester Crown Court, a judge and two magistrates increased the fine to

£17,000 and ordered the company to pay another £698 in costs.

Judge Anthony Thorpe said the original fine was inadequate and pointed

out it had taken the company seven months from the date of the accident to introduce new training procedures.

He said: "That is not good enough."

The appeal court was told employee Mr Pope, 38, had welded a beam which was then moved by a crane to another part of the company's factory on the Churchill Industrial Estate at Lancing last March.

Lifting chains snagged on the beam and Mr Pope, who was standing nearby, was pinned to the ground.

The crane had to be used to lift the beam, weighing more than 1.5 tonnes, from him.

David Leckie, representing the Health and Safety Executive, said the company was prosecuted for failing to ensure the safety of employees because none of the men involved in the operation had received any formal training.

The court was told the company had no previous convictions, but there had been four other major accidents last year.

Stephen Ellis-Jones, representing the company, said many of the 55 employees had been with the firm for many years and an "on the job" training system had been adopted.

He said since the accident, a formal training system had been introduced and the company had pleaded guilty in the magistrates court at the first opportunity and co-operated with the Health and Safety Executive.

Mr Ellis-Jones said:

"The accident was caused by a lack of concentration and it is not a case where there was an appalling system of work in place."

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