“MICE AND MEN”

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1946, Page 7

“MICE AND MEN”

FIRM PINED FOR WASTING

FOOD

(Rec. 2 p.m.) LONDON, July 30. Describing Lyons and Company as “probably the biggest retailers of food in Britain and the British Empire,” a West London Magistrate, Paul Bennet, V.C., fined the firm the maximum penalty of £5OO, with 200 guineas costs, “for wasting an enormous amount of. food,” in the case, in which the defendants were summoned for wasting seven tons of food. t . Pleas of not guilty were entered against the summonses, which included alleged failure to take reasonable steps to prevent mice infestation. The Magistrate, who described the case as “a sad story of mice and men.” said the “main facts were not disputed. . , , When Mr Thorne, an assistant kitchen manager at the Lyons headquarters, Cabby Hall, discovered that food in the cold storage room was contaminated, he reported it’ to the food authorities, who investigated. The Magistrate said it had,been established that between December < 12, 1945, and January 2, 1946,. mice had their own way in the storage room for three weeks without interruption.' One mother mouse decided to make an ideal home in the middle of a meat pie.” Thorne, who was described.as obviously zealous and keen, was fined I £5O for aiding and abetting the firm in permitting the waste of food. I Notice of appeal was given on behalf of both defendants. .A.