A TRANSNATIONAL company has been fined £400,000 over the death of a worker who fell into unguarded machinery at its paper mill in Devon.

Operations manager John Stoddart was pulled into a machine in September 2011 after climbing onto a platform to check whether a felt conveyor belt was causing creases in newly made pulp.

The belt ripped and he fell into the machinery below, which crushed him.

An ambulance took the 41-year-old Cullompton resident to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

DS Smith Paper, his employer of 27 years, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

The company, which was prosecuted at Exeter crown court by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), failed to put a guard around the belt at the Higher Kings Mill factory.

DS Smith did not conduct appropriate risk assessments to identify problems that could arise when workers were fixing conveyor belt faults, an HSE investigation found.

The company, a transnational with a global turnover of £4 billion, was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of nearly £35,000.

Just days before Mr Stoddart’s death, the firm had sold the factory for £4.6 million.

HSE inspector Simon Jones said: “DS Smith’s failure to guard a dangerous piece of moving machinery tragically cost Mr Stoddart his life and has left his family without a husband, father and brother.

“Potentially dangerous machinery should always be guarded and turned off when workers need access to repair faults. A proper risk assessment would have highlighted these dangers and established safe practices for staff.”