A SCRAPYARD that appeared in a fly-on-the-wall documentary has been fined £30,000 after a worker suffered facial injuries that scarred him for life.

The Scrappers Ltd – which changed its name from Metro Salvage to take advantage of featuring in two series of the BBC TV show – was sentenced after being convicted of breaching health and safety laws.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how in September 2014, an experienced employee, Aaron Sparrow, was wounded while removing a catalytic converter from a car at the firm's yard in Waterloo Road, Bolton.

The vehicle had been suspended above head height of a forklift truck, rather than raised with a scissor lift, and while Mr Sparrow was using a steel saw to cut through the exhaust at either end the tool jammed, spun in his hands and he was slashed in the cheek by the blade.

Mr Sparrow sustained what Judge John Potter described as "extremely nasty injuries" requiring 40 stitches.

Prosecutors had alleged at the trial Mr Sparrow has been instructed to follow unsafe practices by a manager while in its defence the firm argued Mr Sparrow had done so of his own accord in contravention of company policies he had signed.

The jury convicted on the basis the company had failed to properly document its health and safety policies such as training and inductions, a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Former director Terry Walker, who ran the yard with his wife Lyndsay and was a main figure in The Scrappers series, was acquitted of the same charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

Judge Potter, sitting at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, said: "There's lots of evidence about the lack of risk assessments, method statements and training methods.This was a company that was disorganised.

"However, this is not a company that put profit before safety."

The court heard of a 2013 case in which a District Judge in the civil court awarded £12,500 to a customer who made a personal injury claim after turning up to the scrapyard to buy a headlight and being crushed by a car that was being hoisted.

Judge Potter fined The Scrappers Ltd, of Fulwood, Preston, £30,000 and ordered the firm to pay £26,687 in costs. The whole sum is due within two years.

The court heard Mr Walker accepted a caution from Greater Manchester Police for witness intimidation after publishing a series of posts about Mr Sparrow on Facebook after the end of the trial.

Two photographs of Mr Sparrow inside the court emerged on social media but GMP decided not to take the matter further, the court heard.

The judge told the prosecutor: "That seems to be a serious example of Contempt of Court and I want the police to explain themselves."

HSE inspector Mike Lisle said after sentencing: "It is essential that companies devise, implement and monitor suitable safe systems of work for hazardous activities.

"This incident was entirely avoidable and had a safe system of work been in place then it would likely have been avoided. As it is a young man is scarred for life and could easily have been killed."