Hotel fined £20k for food hygiene offences

A business that owns a hotel in Shropshire has been successfully prosecuted by its local council for food hygiene offences and fined £20,000.

THG No.3 Ltd in Honiley, Warwick, the hospitality operator of the Mercure Telford Madeley Court Hotel, pleaded guilty to five charges, fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £1,620 in costs.

A member of the public complained to Telford and Wrekin Council, which sparked a visit from the council’s food hygiene inspectors on 27 February last year.

On 4 March Shropshire Magistrates Court sitting in Telford was told that kitchens in both the main hotel and in the Mill House wedding venue were 'filthy'.

Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for enforcement, Cllr Richard Overton, said: “Our food hygiene inspectors make hundreds of visits every year to make sure that the food handled, served and sold at the premises is safe for people to eat.

“Most venues get the top score of five. The most serious of cases such as this, which has resulted in the hotel having a food hygiene rating of zero, also leads to court action.”

The inspectors found:

• Dirty kitchen, refrigerators, chiller and freezer, dirty floors in the Mill House bar and breakfast server and dirty wash hand basins in the Mill House
• Damaged kitchen walls and floor a ceiling and freezers
• Rusty shelving
• A damaged ice scoop left in contact with ice in the ice machine, which carries with it a risk of contamination.