January 2011A company that runs a hotel in Sandown has been fined almost £28,000 after failing a health and safety and food hygiene spot check.
Alan Westwater, whose company Lasston Ltd operates the Seagrove Hotel, appeared at Newport Magistrates Court on Monday 29 November on behalf of himself and his company. He pleaded guilty to one charge relating to health and safety and five charges involving food hygiene offences.
The six charges were brought by Isle of Wight Council's Environmental Health (EH) service following separate visits to the hotel over the last 18 months.
The health and safety offence occurred during one visit on 10 March 2010 by an EH officer when no members of staff were available and no one was monitoring the swimming pool despite four people using it. The officer tried using the emergency number several times, but each time failed to get a reply. This meant there was inadequate means to call for help in an emergency and no staff were available to respond to calls for assistance.
For this offence, Lasston Ltd was fined £12,000 while Mr Westwater was given a £280 fine.
The five food hygiene offence were recorded during a visit to the hotel on 17 August 2009 by an EH officer. Among the offences found, high-risk food was being stored out of temperature control, food safety management systems were not being implemented, black waste bags were being stored underneath a fire escape and staff were not adequately supervised on a day to day basis.
Alan Westwater was fined a total of £700 including costs and a £15 victim surcharge, while Lasston Ltd was handed a total fine of £27972.98 including costs and a £15 victim surcharge.