A teenager was tragically killed after being put on a dangerous apprenticeship by a recruitment agency who wanted to ‘rush through’ a £4,500 government payment for placing him there, a court has been told.

Cameron Minshull, 16, died after becoming entangled in a lathe while working at Huntley Mount Engineering in Bury, which makes products for the petrochemical industry.

That company has admitted corporate manslaughter in connection with his death on January 8 2013.

Prosecutors alleged they used apprentices as ‘cheap labour’, had a ‘history’ of failing to train them properly, and a ‘grossly unsafe’ system of work.

The recruitment agency which organised his apprenticeship at the workplace - Lime People Training Solutions Ltd (LTPS) - has now gone on trial accused of failing to ensure his health and safety by exposing him to that risk.

No one from the firm was present in court - and the jury has been told corporate defendants can choose not not be.

Prosecutor Bryan Cox QC told a Manchester Crown Court jury that Cameron’s job ‘was a wholly unsuitable placement for an apprentice - let alone a 16-year-old boy’.

He claimed LPTS ‘did nothing’ to ensure the work was suitable, despite the ‘substantial payment’ they got from the government for doing so, and their contractual obligation to provide a ‘healthy and safe’ environment for teen workers.

The court heard Cameron’s apprenticeship was funded by the government’s Skills Training Agency. LPTS were not registered with the agency, but the work had been contracted out to them by a company that was.

LPTS found companies who wanted apprentices by ‘cold calling from a call centre in Tenerife’, Mr Cox said.

Using his mother’s email address, Cameron answered an advert placed for apprenticeships in Bury and Wigan, beginning work at Huntley Mount on December 3, after a interview lasting around 10 minutes.

However no health and safety assessment was done by LPTS at Huntley Mount’s premises, it was alleged.

A former employee of LPTS is expected to testify that ‘matters were being rushed through’ because Cameron was one of the first apprentices.

On January 8, Cameron was killed doing work that was ‘inherently unsafe’, the court heard.

It involved putting his hands in close proximity to the moving parts of an unguarded lathe, whilst wearing unsuitable clothing, when he wasn’t properly supervised.

Proceeding