A dairy worker who suffered a severe spinal injuries after being crushed by 1200kg of milk cartons has been awarded £50,000 in damages.

The 43-year-old employee of Graham's Dairies Limited took the firm to the Court of Session seeking damages after the accident.

Lord Armstrong ruled on Wednesday the worker had suffered "significant, severe, painful and disabling consequences" since the incident in August 2014.

The delivery driver, who was not named in the judgment, was trying to unload cages containing cartons of milk, weighing approximately 127kg each, at a supermarket.

The judge said: "As he was moving the wheeled cages to access those for the delivery address, a number of the wheeled cages, which were not secured with separation bars, moved into space created and trapped him against the side wall of the lorry.

"He felt immediate pain in his back. He was trapped by the weight of some nine or ten cages for a period of about ten to 15 minutes, during which time he attempted to extricate himself by pushing, pulling and, in particular, twisting his body in order to free himself."

Lord Armstrong noted the man, who lost his job at the Stirling-based firm after the accident, "found himself in such significant pain that he was unable to stand" around 45 minutes after the accident.

He was later admitted to Forth Valley Royal Hospital, suffering from "severe pain in his back and around his ribcage" as well as having "difficulty breathing and was experiencing pain between his shoulder blades and in his legs."

Since the incident he has been unable to work and has suffered "chronic back pain, restricted movement and an associated decline in his mental health".

Lawyers for the dairy firm contested the action, stating the worker had "suffered several episodes of back pain" previously and would have been at "a high risk of recurrence of back pain".

Consultant spinal surgeon Dr Christopher Adams, who appeared on behalf of the company, told the court he believed the accident would have caused a "period of exacerbation to be in the range between ten days and three months", Lord Armstrong said.

The judge sided with evidence presented on behalf of the employee by Dr Ravindra Kulkarni, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who found "the pursuer had suffered a significant injury of the type which would not normally be expected to resolve within three months".

Lord Armstrong ruled Graham's Dairies Limited should pay the former delivery driver £51,080 in damages, covering past wage loss, pension loss and compensation.