Mice means pub pays the price
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
12/08/2008
The owners of a busy Hammersmith pub have been fined after mice were found in its kitchen.
JD Wetherspoon Plc was ordered to pay a fine of £1,500 and £5,854 in legal costs after pleading guilty to failing to comply with food hygiene regulations at the William Morris pub in Lyric Square.
On Thursday 17th July, West London Magistrates Court heard that over a period of eight months in 2006, Hammersmith & Fulham Council received three separate complaints of mice at the pub.
The council’s environmental health officers visited the pub on each occasion and found mouse droppings in the kitchen the first two times and also in the bar area on one occasion. The pub voluntarily closed their kitchen twice before re-opening once inspectors were happy that their standard of hygiene had improved.
However, by the third visit from the council in December 2006, standards had deteriorated so badly that inspectors found layers of grease and food on the floor, along with more mouse droppings.
Councillor Greg Smith, Cabinet Member for Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour, said: “The people responsible for this pub ignored repeated warnings from food safety officers that they needed to raise their standards.
“Mice carry salmonella and other bacteria that can lead to terrible food poisoning. It does not take a genius to work out that leaving them to run amuck in a dirty kitchen will lead to someone becoming seriously ill.”
JD Wetherspoon opened its first pub in 1979 and now owns 699 high street pubs across the UK.
