A BETTWS butcher has been fined £2,000 for a series of food hygiene offences a magistrate said could have killed someone.

An environmental health officer who visited Steve Amman Butchers in Bettws shopping centre as part of a routine inspection in December found cobwebs on the ceiling, damage to tiles, washing up brushes with lumps of meat in them and a frozen duck a year out of date.

The oven, meat slicer and preparation areas were also dirty.

The officer called a chopping board “a vessel of contamination” after she found black mould in the cracks.

A range of produce including faggots, chicken legs and liver were not labelled properly to show where they come.

Following this visit, the owner Steven Amman was served a hygiene improvement notice and given a hygiene food rating of zero.

Amman, 53, of Mill Heath, Bettws, was charged with twelve offences relating to his business Steve Amman Butchers.

He pleaded guilty to all twelve charges against him; two of which were under the General Food Regulations 2004 act, eight under the food hygiene regulations 2006 act and two under the animal by-products regulations 2011.

An officer revisited in January, March and July of this year.

In January the officer found the white chopping board she had deemed a hygiene hazard, still in use and the raw meat scales were still dirty.

In March there was still no food hygiene training certificate and by July equipment continued to be dirty and the chopping board was still in use.

Amman, who represented himself in court, told magistrates: “All I can say is there’s been big improvements since the dates you’ve got there.

"Everything they have told me to do I have done straight away.”

Amman had yet to complete his hygiene training.

Chairman of the bench, Philip Pugh, said: “This is really serious.

"Someone could die as the result of your actions.

"I just hope the local authority makes an early inspection.

“If you are brought back to court with another offence you will be in real problems."

Amman was fined £2,000 and forced to pay costs of £1,564 as well as £120 victim surcharge, bringing the total owed to £3,684.

The butcher is still open and currently has a food hygiene rating of one (on a scale ranging from nil to a maximum best rating of five), meaning major improvement necessary, given by Newport City Council on July 18, 2013.