THE owner of a seaside fudge shop has been fined more than £1,000 for serious breaches in food hygiene.

Lucy Gillian Kappes was prosecuted by Scarborough Borough Council after the authority investigated her shop From Love To Fudge, and found cooking and storage equipment heavily contaminated with grease, dirt and food particles.

Environmental Health officers visited the shop, in Foreshore Road, in November last year, and also found the electric fly killer was full of dead flies and dirty, the walls and floor of the food preparation room were damaged and dirty, and a batch of unwrapped fudge was in direct contact with dirty step ladders.

Scarborough Borough Council Health and Community Safety Manager, Steve Pogson, said: “This was a clear breach of the food hygiene legislation. Food businesses are responsible for ensuring their premises are kept clean and maintained in good repair and condition to ensure they produce food in a safe and hygienic manner and in a clean environment. Poor levels of cleanliness are not acceptable and we will take action against those who do not comply with this basic hygiene requirement.”

Kappes was fined £1,050 for serious breaches in food hygiene regulations, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £450, and a £105 victim surcharge after she pleaded guilty to three food hygiene offences at Scarborough Magistrates Court.