Legal News

A supermarket found to have a mouse infestation has been fined £20,000, after Sandwell Council in the West Midlands took legal action against the company.

Masala Bazaar – based at Cape Hill Retail Centre in Smethwick – appeared at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on 12 September charged with failing to protect food from mice and their faeces and failing to control mouse activity on its premises.

The company – based in Whitchurch, Cardiff – pleaded guilty and was fined £3,150 for each charge, with costs of £13,919.89, a total of £20,219.89.

The judge said the company had to pay the prosecution costs in full – costs which were necessarily far greater than they would have been because the company had waited until the morning of the trial to indicate its guilty pleas, a delay which had resulted in considerable additional costs being incurred by Sandwell Council in preparing the case for a contested trial.

The court also advised the company that it had been handed a higher penalty than it would have received because the evidence in the case was “overwhelming” – and the company could and should have accepted its responsibility and entered its guilty pleas at a much earlier stage in the proceedings.

Evidence of mouse activity was found within the premises at Masala Bazaar in March 2015. The company closed voluntarily for five days, after which environmental health officers allowed it to re-open – during the closure, 19 mice were caught.

Food and drinking water with animal, insect or rodent faeces and saliva can cause serious gastrointestinal illnesses, including salmonella, Leptospirosis or Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV).

After the hearing, Sandwell Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection, Councillor Preet Gill, said:

“The council is committed to ensuring Sandwell residents' health and safety is not compromised by any business.

“I want everyone in Sandwell to know that, where there are businesses that fail to meet health and hygiene standards required by law, we will prosecute.

“The judge was very clear in sending a message – trying to avoid responsibility for your actions will only cost more if a case has to be contested in court.”

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