A MOTHER whose son was killed at work because of insufficient safety measures has criticised a court's decision to impose a £10,000 fine on the company to blame.

Factory worker and young dad James West, 22, was crushed when an overhead crane operated by an untrained colleague knocked heavy metal cubes on top of him at NEF Limited in Darlington.

The engineering firm, based at the Cleveland Trading Estate in Cleveland Road, last Thursday admitted failing to ensure the safety of its staff and permitting employees to use the crane without adequate training at Teesside Crown Court.

David Rowlands, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, told the court that most of the ten workers at the firm drove the crane without training.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox QC imposed a £5,000 fine for each offence with £3,804 costs.

Mr West's mother Julie Jones, 46, landlady of the Red Lion pub in Shildon, said the fine was not nearly enough.

She said: "It's not a lot considering I have got a four-year-old grandson, Joseph, who has got no dad now. He was 22. He went to work. He should have come home. I don't think I will ever get over it."

She described Mr West, a former student of Gilesgate Comprehensive in Durham and Darlington College of Technology, as popular, especially at work. "They say it's been very quiet since he left."

He had left the Red Lion to move in with his girlfriend shortly before the accident last September.

Since the incident NEF has been sold for £170,000.