Cider poison plot case concluded

Richard Gay did not conspire to contaminate the cider

A chemist recruited to make the yeast that a brewery boss planned to use to contaminate a rival's products has avoided a jail term.

Richard Gay, 51, was asked to provide cultures that Michael Hancocks then planned to put into the production line of HP Bulmer, one of the country's best-known cider companies.

Hancocks, director of Birmingham's Aston Manor Brewery, was jailed for 18 months on Thursday after admitting conspiring to defraud Hereford-based Bulmer's by putting contaminants into their products.

Gay was sentenced to a 200-hour community punishment order at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.

Surveillance operation

He was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Gay, of Weston Lane, Tyseley, Birmingham, had previously pleaded guilty to possessing materials with a view to carrying out an offence.

The court was told that Gay agreed to cultivate the wild yeasts and was aware that the cultures he was producing could cause production problems.

Hancocks was described as the instigator of the plot

But he made no agreement to contaminate and did not conspire to do so, the court heard.

Hancocks, 64, of Hafod Road, Hereford, had also recruited his daughter's ex-partner Paul Harris to transport the material and to recruit a Bulmer's employee with access to the production line.

But the forklift driver he approached alerted Bulmer's and police to the plot and a surveillance operation was set up.

Scientific analysis revealed that Gay had not managed to produce the yeast intended in any case.

The plot was also uncovered before any contaminants could enter the Bulmer's production line.

But the court heard that the yeast could have caused production problems, even though it would not have posed a threat to the public.

Harris, 41, of Harpersfield, Kings Caple, Hereford, was jailed for 15 months on Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to contaminate Bulmer's products with intent to cause economic loss.

As he sentenced Gay, Judge John Foley told him: "There's a proper distinction between your role and theirs."