A BLOOD-smeared wall and filthy bone saw have seen a food store manager fined £1,500.

Magistrates said hygiene failings at the Broadgreen butchers' posed a significant risk to the public.

Fining him almost £1,500 Martin Clarke, chairman of the bench, told the former owner of Manchester Road’s 9 O’Clock Shop he was lucky no one had fallen seriously ill.

Amanullah Adil, 28, of Beatrice Street, pleaded guilty to eight breaches of food hygiene law.

Council environmental health officers inspected the Manchester Road shop five times between March and November last year.

Encrusted meat debris was found on a bone saw blade stabiliser and mincer, dead flies littered a electric fly-killer and the only sink available for washing bloody knives was in a rear yard.

Prosecutor Phil Wirth, acting for Swindon Borough Council, said cardboard was being used as a chopping board on which to prepare meat and card was also placed on the floor of the butchers shop. Blood was smeared on a wall, where a carcass had brushed against it. Raw meat was being stored near yoghurt and coriander, posing a risk of cross contamination. On some visits by hygiene inspectors there was no disinfectant in the shop.

He told magistrates “The operation of this food business exposed the public to a significant food health risk.”

Adil had been director of the 9 O’Clock Shop UK Ltd at the time of the inspections. However, he handed control of the business to his brother days before he was due to be formally interviewed by council hygiene inspectors.

The company has since been liquidated, with the Manchester Road store now operated by an AA Grocery Swindon Ltd, also previously owned by Adil and now passed to his brother. The shop building is rented from a private landlord.

Nazmeen Imambaccus, defending, said her client had taken efforts to improve the store. He had taken out loans totalling £65,000 for the works, which have seen a new floor installed in the butchers’ shop, sinks installed, three members of staff put through food safety training and investment in equipment storage and staff safety clothing.

Over the period the store was under investigation, Adil was going through the courts in a bid to win permission for family members to move to the UK from Afghanistan.

“There were quite a lot of immigration matters going on at this time,” Ms Immambaccus said. “He neglected the shop. At the same time the shop was going through renovation.”

Adil had used two builders to undertake the works to a food store, who kept delaying the work. But it was his poor judgement that saw him continue trading while builders were working on the store, his barrister said.

Ms Immambaccus told magistrates that competitor stores were taking advantage of the publicity around the case to criticise the 9 O’Clock Shop online. As a consequence, Adil had lost up to 40 per cent of his earnings.

Magistrate Martin Clarke said: “We can’t get away from the fact you’ve pleaded guilty. You had five visits from the environmental health team and over that period of time you have done a few things.

“You’ve started a few things but nothing about your business has materially changed. You did no staff training. There was no improvement of the cleanliness or the operational process and policies put in place. You were still operating a business while building works were going on.

“This was a significant risk to public health. This bench would argue it was even more than significant. It was very significant, in which he was lucky that nobody fell materially ill or seriously ill. If that was the case you would be facing different charges.

He was fined £1,495 and ordered to pay £4,662.40 in costs to Swindon Borough Council and a victim surcharge of £149.

Mr Clarke said: “This is going to hurt, Mr Adil. This is a lot of money, that’s equal to the amount of risk you put the public in.”