Shop boss fined £3k for selling food seven months out of date
The case was heard at Blackpool Magistrates' Court
Gazette Reporter
Published: 12:11 Wednesday 30 August 2017
The director of a St Annes shop found to be selling food which was up to seven months out of date has been ordered by a court to pay more than £3,000 in financial penalties.
Large quantities of food including salads, sandwiches, burgers, yoghurts, milkshakes and cheese were past their use-by date at the Thorogoods store on St Alban's Road.
A health inspector also found food was not stored at the correct temperature in a fridge which was filthy with mould and food that should have been refrigerated had not been.
Areas of the shop, office and yard were dirty and disorganised and staff had not received adequate training resulting in unhygienic conditions and poorly managed stock, Blackpool magistrates heard.
Asif Khan, 42, a director of Logic Wise Limited, which holds the franchise for the Thorogoods stores, pleaded guilty to five offences of breaching food health and hygiene laws.
He was fined £1,600 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs with a £32 victim surcharge.
Presiding magistrate Pamela Haslam, said: "These are serious offences and it is only by luck a member of the public has not become ill."
Michael Lavery, prosecuting for Fylde Council, told a previous hearing: "There was an adverse risk to individuals if they consumed these out-of-date foods. The council says this is a case of high culpability."
He said on January 30, a council officer visited Thorogoods and found expired food on sale.
In one fridge, which had mould in it, there were six one litre banana milkshakes, which were rotten and stinking - and seven months past their expiry date of June 29, 2016.
Cases of yogurts, smoked sausage, pepperoni snacks and Dairylea Dunkers that should have been refrigerated were just stored on shelving.
The prosecutor said Logic Wise Limited, the company Khan was a director of, had a previous conviction for breaching food health and hygiene rules in 2014, which included offences of having out of date food and storing food above the correct temperature.
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