A PUB landlady from near Selby faces more than £2000 in fines and costs, because of food hygiene problems found in her kitchens.

Carol Coley, 57, runs the Wheatsheaf Hotel on Moor Lane, Sherburn in Elmet, and she faced magistrates in York yesterday over standards at the pub.

The court heard that Environmental Health workers from Selby District Council had tracked problems in the pub kitchen - from out-of-date food in the fridges, to food not being kept cold enough - for ten months in 2016.

Problems first came to light after a complaint in March that year, and council workers went to investigate. Selby District Council solicitor Rebecca Ware told magistrates their officers discovered there was no documented food safety management system, and food that should have been refrigerated was too warm for too long.

There was also out-of-date food found in the pub's fridges.

The council teams wrote to the pub and visited again over the following months, and in October served a formal notice to improve the situation. By December that notice had not been complied with, Miss Ware said. Yesterday Ms Coley admitted she had failed to comply with the hygiene improvement notice.

Miss Ware added: "There was a history over the course of at least 10 months of contravening food safety regulations. Compliance is designed to ensure food businesses are serving food which is safe for the public."

For Ms Coley, solicitor Keith Heggarty said she had run the pub for 14 years with no complaints until last year, when she suffered a collapsed shoulder. That left her in "indescribable agony", and she sent to stay with her partner in Wales for care.

During that time she left the Wheatsheaf in the care of employees and it was then the problems built up, Mr Heggarty added.

In addition, many of the out-of-date food items actually belonged to staff rather than the businesses, he said. Even though Ms Coley gave staff "the hard word" and insisted on new training, she realised the problems had not been addressed. After an operation late last year, she abandoned her recovery against doctors' orders in an attempt to right the problems.

"She dedicated every single day to running the pub herself".

He also told magistrates the businesses was turning over £3000 a week but most of that went either to the brewery or back into the pub.

Magistrates gave Ms Coley a £1340, and ordered her to pay a £134 surcharge plus £825 in court costs, making £2299 in total.