The owner of Holland Handling has been ordered to pay £5,338 after an explosion at his scrap yard injured an employee.

The accident happened at the recycling and skip hire plant in Minety in February, when one of John Holland's employees, father-of-three David King, 37, cut open an empty drum using an oxyacetylene torch, Chippenham Magistrates Court was told.

The gases from the torch and the drum reacted and caused an explosion that shattered Mr King's leg.

Mr Holland's solicitor, Richard Stead, said that if Mr King, who had 12 years service with the firm, had taken the plug out of the drum to release the gases the accident would not have occurred.

He said: "Mr King had done the procedure many times before but this time there was a more pressing matter as there was a hydraulic leak on an implement and Mr King wanted to cut the drum in half to collect the leaking oil."

But health and safety officer Frederick Tucker, prosecuting, said there were no written instructions in the company's manual and therefore it was responsible. He did accept that Mr Holland had been very co-operative and the company had no health and safety breaches in its 20-year history.

Mr Holland,who pleaded guilty to the charge of exposing his employees to the risk of injury, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,338, the total to be paid within 28 days.

Mr Stead said that the company's safety procedures had been run by Mr Holland's brother Pete, who died in November 2000 after suffering from cancer. The safety manual had not been updated since his death.