A firm has been fined thousands of pounds after a man suffered life-changing injuries when he was crushed.

He was working at K&G Maintenance Services in Marden when a metal frame fell on him, fracturing his spine and leaving him permanently paralysed from the waist down.

Maidstone Crown Court heard defective equipment was being used and there were no safe systems of control in place.

The firm, based in Underlyn Lane, was fined £22,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,181.

The accident in August 2014 happened as four metal box frames were being built.

“If suitable equipment had been provided to the employees and had the defective equipment been removed from the workshop, then this incident should not have happened”

As they were being moved, the sling around them came away from a hook on the lift and one tumbled down on the worker.

K&G Maintenance Services pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the work was not planned and no safe systems of control were in place at the engineering firm.

The Messenger contacted the firm, which declined to comment.

HSE inspector Joanne Williams said after the hearing: “This serious accident, which resulted in life-changing injuries, was completely preventable and clearly demonstrated the need to ensure lifting operations are properly planned and managed.

“If suitable equipment had been provided to the employees and had the defective equipment been removed from the workshop, then this incident should not have happened.”

The HSE is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health, through research, information and advice, promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.

There were 76,054 non-fatal injuries to employees reported in 2014/15. In total, an estimated 4.1 million working days were lost due to workplace injuries, on average 6.7 days per case.

During the last 20 years, there has been a downward trend in the rate of fatal injury, although in recent years this shows signs of levelling off.