A YORK-BASED supermarket chain has been fined £20,000 for overcharging for alcohol.

York Magistrates Court heard yesterday that the chain had been given a warning by trading standards officers, but continued to over-charge customers - and sometimes undercharge them - more than two weeks later.

Dunnington-based Ebor Supermarkets Ltd, the retail arm of Costcutter Supermarkets, operating 100 Costcutter stores, pleaded guilty to ten charges of misleading customers.

The offences happened in the Costcutter store in Wheldrake last year.

An investigation was launched by the Food and Safety Unit in York after two complaints.

A visit on April 11 found overcharging on four-packs of Grolsch lager and Worthington's beer, where the price charged was up to 61p more than advertised.

The store was given a warning, but the same situation was found during a visit on April 29.

Five out of 17 articles were found to be overcharged, by up to £1 on bottles of wine.

Principal Trading Standards officer Richard Withers said: "The company could defend itself if it could show it had taken the correct steps, but in no way has all possible action and due diligence been taken."

He said the company had procedures in place where store and area managers should carry out price checks on promotional offers, but there was no record of any checks.

"We have also found occasions of undercharging," said Mr Withers.

"It just goes to show that the system employed simply did not work."

Sam Perkins, defending, said the incidents occurred due to failures in the system and human error.

"We are not dealing with criminals defrauding the consumer, but the difficulties of trying to run a competitive organisation against the 'big boys' like Tesco and Sainsbury's," he said.

He said there had been a breakdown in communication, and the computers were unable to work complicated charging systems.

Presiding magistrate Sue Candalet said: "This is a serious matter but we have taken into account that undercharging has taken place as well as overcharging."

The firm was fined £1,500 for each of the offences on April 11, and £2,500 for the offences on April 29, making a total of £20,000. Costs of £797.50 were awarded.

Updated: 11:04 Friday, June 27, 2003