The owner of a Saundersfoot pub has been fined a total of £12,500 by Haverfordwest Magistrates this week after admitting to five food hygiene offences.

Ian Griffiths of The Royal Oak Inn, Wogan Terrace, was also ordered to pay £2778.37 costs to Pembrokeshire County Council at the hearing on Monday.

The Council brought the case following breaches found at the pub during a routine inspection in October, 2012, by officers from the Authority’s Public Protection Division.

As well as revealing the lack of an adequate food safety management system, officers found evidence of food not being protected against contamination; unclean structures and equipment; a lack of training of staff and various out-of-date foods and inadequately labelled foodstuffs such that effective stock rotation could not be safely carried out.

The business agreed to voluntarily close until immediate cleaning and disinfection and stock checks had been carried out.

Afterwards the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services, Councillor Huw George, stressed that the Authority would not hesitate to take action where serious contraventions of the legislation were discovered by authorised officers.

He went on: “The level of the fine demonstrates the serious nature of the breaches and spells a clear message to all businesses for the need for an effective food safety management system.

“In addition this system needs to be properly communicated to, understood and implemented by, food handlers at all levels.

“In premises such as this, the safe, hygienic handling and storage of raw meats and other foods is essential to prevent against food poisoning risks, especially that of E-coli 0157 cross-contamination.

“While we could not excuse the serious nature of breaches identified at the premises, the business deserves credit for fully co-operating with the Council in dealing promptly with the highlighted risks.

“I am also pleased to report that at the last programmed inspection, standards were being maintained and the premises was awarded a score of four, which equates to ‘Good’ under the food hygiene rating scheme.”

Ian Griffiths was also ordered by Magistrates to pay a victim surcharge of £120.