A BUTCHER has been ordered to pay a whopping £54,000 in fines and costs for ‘shocking’ hygiene breaches and illegal sales to London eateries totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Filthy conditions uncovered by health inspectors at The Country Butcher in Main Road, Huntley, included putrefying meat waste, rubbish and maggots found in a bin bag behind the freezer.

The floor and sink unit were grimy and a dirty brush had been used for cleaning the premises, which shut last December.

Gloucester Crown Court heard that council officers also found paperwork which led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of sales which did not have Food Standards Agency (FSA) authorisation.

The former Country Butcher operator David Ian Tomlins, 66, of Green Lane, Hucclecote, had previously pleaded guilty at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court to seven charges of failing to keep his premises clean and one of failing to comply with an improvement notice from hygiene inspectors. 

He also admitted two offences of selling meat and meat products to London restaurants and pubs without FSA authority.

Tomlins was fined £24,000 with £30,000 costs and told that he must pay the fine within a year or face a one-year jail term.

As he passed sentence on Monday, (March 13), Recorder Adam Vaitilingam QC told him: “It seems to me that no members of the public who saw the conditions at your premises would ever have knowingly eaten food coming from that shop. 

“You were cutting corners, you were flouting the rules, and you were doing it for financial gain.”

The food hygiene breaches were discovered during a routine visit in March 2015 by Forest of Dean Council food safety officers, resulting in hygiene improvement notices being served. 

Subsequent visits to the shop found that Tomlins had failed to take adequate action to rectify the situation, resulting in the council pursuing legal action.

On a follow-up inspection, officers discovered paperwork which led to the discovery of the unauthorised sales to London restaurants.

The judge viewed the hygiene conditions as “truly shocking”, but treated the long distance sales without approval as the more serious offences.

He said Tomlins “deliberately withheld” information about this side of his business because he knew he would never get FSA approval for it.

“You could not afford to lose the custom you were getting,” he told Tomlins. “You took the risk and that risk has come home to roost in these court proceedings.”

The judge said the extent of the unauthorised trade and Tomlins’ “flagrant dishonesty” in hiding it only came to light as a result of “some impressive detective work” by the council’s officers.

Tomlins regretted the offences, the court was told.

Councillor Marrilyn Smart, (Con, English Bicknor and Christchurch), Cabinet member for the environment, said: “We have a responsibility to ensure that all food premises and businesses in the district comply with food hygiene regulations. 

“When low standards of hygiene are identified, such failings are treated seriously, acted upon and if improvements are not made by the food business operators then we have a duty to take legal steps to protect the health of the public.”