Butcher Beau Johnson admits hygiene charges

Magistrate Hilary Gilbertson said it would be “draconian” to bar Beau Johnson from managing food businesses, even though he admitted hygiene failings at the butcher’s shop he formerly owned in Little Shambles.

Mr Johnson, 35, of Regent House, Princess Drive, York, pleaded guilty to three charges that he failed to comply with food hygiene regulations. He was handed a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £3,600 costs and a £15 victim surcharge at York Magistrates Court.

Susan Kerr, for City of York Council, asked magistrates to give a prohibition order stopping Mr Johnson managing food outlets after the council’s environmental health department raised concerns over public health and food poisoning risks at his shop.

Council inspectors visited the shop in July last year and found dirty equipment and aprons being used, and a water heater and cleaning products encrusted with raw meat, Mrs Kerr said.

The business was also using out of date guidance about stopping E. coli and not complying with it, she said.

The shop was then managed by Carmel Borbone, who Mr Johnson had employed to revive the business after his relationship broke down, defence lawyer Damien Morrison said.

The shop was given a hygiene improvement notice and barred from selling cooked meats for a time in July last year, but when inspectors returned in December they found the notice had not been complied with.

Mr Johnson accepted he was responsible for the shop while a manager was in place, and asked magistrates not to issue an order to stop him making his living from butchery elsewhere, Mr Morrison said.

Sentencing Mr Johnson, Mrs Gilbertson said: “It would be draconian in these circumstances to impose a prohibition order as requested, but we do have considerable concerns that you allowed standards to slip.

“If you get yourself into a situation like this again that matter would be seen very seriously.”