Bakery fined after mice infestation

A bakery in the West Midlands has been fined £10,000 after environmental health inspectors found its former premises infested with mice.

Officials discovered 12 dead rodents at A Lewis & Sons' site in Walsall, which they shut down for a three-day clean-up, Walsall Magistrates heard.

Director Simon Lewis, 35, pleaded guilty to five charges of failing to keep the premises and equipment clean and of failing to ensure adequate hygiene procedures were in place.

Lewis, of School Road, Hockley Heath, Solihull, also pleaded guilty to the same set of charges in his capacity as boss of the firm, and was personally fined £1,000.

First blemish

The court heard that Walsall Council's environmental health department had concerns about the bakery from the beginning of 2002.

Lewis was reprimanded over the factory's dirty state in March of that year, but by Christmas the mouse infestation had become a major problem.

The business was shut down for a three-day clean up in December and closed permanently when Lewis decided to move the operation back to its original premises in Garrett's Green, Birmingham, in May this year.

The court heard that despite the filthy state of the bakery, there was no evidence that any of its products had been affected.

The fine was the first blemish on A Lewis & Sons' record during its 104 years of trading.