Welsh business Penarth Bakery has been fined more than £10,000 – and its owner banned from running a food business for 10 years - after committing dozens of hygiene offences.
District Judge Bodfan Jenkins described bakery owner Gareth Spray and his Penarth company as having a “flagrant disregard for the law”.
The judge insisted there had been an “appalling catalogue of behaviour by all involved as to the state of the premises and equipment, enough to turn one’s stomach”.
When food safety officers visited Modern Bakery, trading as Penarth Bakery Limited on Plassey Street, they found “serious breaches” of hygiene regulations.
These were so serious, heard the court, that officers had to intervene in the interests of public health, with a total of 11 improvement notices being served. The breaches included:
• Poor personal hygiene
• Failure to protect food from contamination
• Filthy premises that were in a poor condition
• Storing high-risk food out of temperature control
• Failure to ensure that adequate procedures were in place to control pests. Rodents and insects were not controlled at the premises
• Placing unfit food on the market
• A failure to implement and maintain written food safety procedures at the business, demonstrating a lack of control and care
• A failure to comply with eight hygiene improvement notices.
A mixer in a dirty condition
The hand wash basin in the staff toilet
Bakery owner Spray pleaded guilty to 28 offences in respect of food hygiene, and a further eight offences for failing to comply with hygiene improvement notices. He was fined £7,200; was ordered to pay costs of £1,400 and a victim surcharge of £115; and to undergo 200 hours of unpaid work and 15 days rehabilitation activity.
Spray was also sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to two offences of placing food on the market that was unfit for human consumption. Penarth Bakery was fined £1,300 for each of these two offences and £200 failing to failing to display the sticker illustrating their 0 food hygiene rating. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £1,400 and a victim surcharge of £200.
Gwyn John, cabinet member for visible, leisure and regulatory services in the Vale of Glamorgan, said cases such as this were rare across the region.
“Most food businesses work hard to ensure that the highest possible standards of food hygiene are maintained,” he said. “Nevertheless, the outcome of this court case sends a clear message that firm action will be taken wherever necessary to safeguard the public.”
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