Host's hygiene penalty

A former Greene King pub manager has received a 12-month conditional discharge after pleading guilty at Crown Court to failing to comply with food-safety

legislation.

Scott Ryder, 24, was also ordered to pay £500 costs at Winchester Crown Court.

The prosecution by Winchester City Council followed a routine inspection of the Royal Oak in Royal Oak Passage, Winchester, by an environmental health officer in 2006. Several pieces of equipment, work surfaces, floors and walls were found to be in a very poor state of

cleanliness.

Greene King was fined £25,000, plus £6,500 costs, at Andover Magistrates in July 2007 for 10 counts of hygiene breaches.

Ryder chose to be tried at Crown Court. Defending Ryder, Nick Tucker described how at one point between September and October the 24-year-old was working behind the bar and in the kitchen, racking up 90 working hours in a week rather than his contracted 48.

He said that Ryder, who was only 21 at the time, had asked Greene King for more staff but to no avail.

Cllr Frank Pearson said: "This case should act as a warning that we will pursue all parties involved in food-hygiene breaches, be they corporate organisations or individual managers."

The Royal Oak has now been given a "satisfactory" rating for food hygiene in the council's "scores on the doors" scheme. This allows the public to view venues' food-hygiene ratings on the council's website.

Authorities threaten further football prosecutions

A total of 294 licensed premises were successfully prosecuted for showing Premiership football using domestic Sky cards during 2007, according to the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), which brought the prosecutions.

FACT spokesman Eddie Leviten said: "We are going to be as active this year as we were last year."

Last year saw the first revocations and suspensions of personal licences for domestic screenings in pubs, as well as stiff fines that ran into several thousands of pounds.

The most recent fines were inflicted by magistrates on licensee Patrick Mangen and bar manager Joseph Young of the King David in St David's, Northamptonshire. They were fined £4,000 each and ordered to pay costs of £1,086.

The pair were prosecuted for screening Liverpool v Chelsea on 19 August and Manchester Utd v Chelsea on 23 September using a domestic card.