27 Nov 2007 - Ref 55/07
LANCASHIRE FRUIT & VEG WHOLESALER
ORDERED TO PAY OVER £15,000 IN FINES AND COSTS
Horticultural Marketing Inspections (HMI), part of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), successfully prosecuted J H Haslam (Preston) Limited and its director John Haslam on 14 November for displaying and selling substandard lettuce and satsumas. The company and its director were fined a total of £7,500 and ordered to pay an additional £7,857 costs.
Magistrates found J H Haslam (Preston) Limited and its director Mr Haslam guilty of six separate offences under section 14 of the Agricultural and Horticulture Act 1964. The company displayed and offered for sale 41 boxes of English iceberg lettuce and 124 boxes of Spanish satsumas on 5 January 2007. Both consignments failed to meet the lowest marketable class permitted i.e. Class II, in contravention of European Community Grading Rules.
Barrie Stedman, Head of Rural Payments Agency’s Inspectorate, said: “Consumers must feel confident that the produce they are buying is of the right quality. HMI’s role is to work with traders to provide advice and assistance to ensure that this happens and to help traders carry out their business within the law.
“HMI spoke to JH Haslam (Preston) Ltd and its director, Mr Haslam on a number of occasions with regard to its display and sale of goods. The company’s repeated refusal to comply with the requirements of the Act, including ignoring a written formal undertaking to HMI to stop displaying and selling substandard produce, directly led to this prosecution and the resulting fine and costs of £15,357. I hope this case will send a message to traders that where our advice is repeatedly ignored we can and do seek prosecution through the court.”
Note to Editors
1 Horticultural Marketing Inspections is part of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The Inspectorate is responsible for the enforcement of the EC Marketing Standards for fresh fruit, vegetables, salad crops, nuts, cultivated mushroom, flowers and bulbs throughout England and Wales, wherever fresh produce is grown, imported, exported, bought or sold.
HMI operates a transparent risk based approach to enforcement in which its principle aim is to gain cooperation and compliance of the trade it regulates at all stages of the distribution chain. Prosecutions are only taken as a last resort when all other options of education and advice have been exhausted.
The prosecution then follows the Hampton procedures of identifying and isolating any persistent and blatant offenders. The ultimate sanction of prosecution is then used as a clear deterrent to others who may look to break European Commission Grading rules in order to obtain an advantage over other commercial competitors.
2 Further information about the work of HMI can be found on the RPA website at www.rpa.gov.uk
3 RPA is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), providing a range of key services in support of the department’s objectives, including making rural payments, carrying out rural inspections, and livestock tracing.
4 Media only contact: Ciaran Baker, press officer, 0118 9 687 680
Page published: 27 November 2007