Britannia Hotels pleads guilty to food safety breaches at the Adelphi

Britannia Hotels, owners of Liverpool’s Adelphi hotel were taken to Liverpool Magistrates’ Court charged with a number of breaches of food safety laws.

It admitted to breaching the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations Act 2013 following inspections at the hotel in September 2015 and March and September 2016.

Evidence of rodents, live cockroaches, cockroach body parts and unclean floors were found at the inspections.

Britannia Hotels plead guilty to all charges of failing to keep its kitchen clean and failing to have adequate procedures in place to control pests. This turned the hearing into a sentencing as opposed to a trial.

The hotel currently has a hygiene rating of two out of five.

David Birrell, prosecutor, said: “By its guilty plea, the defendant accepts its procedures were not adequate. The defendant’s approach to pest control was reactive, rather than proactive.”

He went on to say that while the hotel was “not alone in being vulnerable to pests”, the amount of derelict buildings nearby made it a more “difficult problem”.

William Hibbert, speaking on behalf of the Adelphi told the court that a pest control contractor said the hotel was “doing a good job” and added that although it was a long standing problem, “it was wrong to suggest that [it] was a large infestation”.

He added that the risk of contamination was very low.

The hotel voluntarily closed its kitchen to deal with the problem and all staff were placed on pest awareness training.

The hearing was adjourned and Britannia will be sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (22 June) at 2pm.

Britannia Hotels has an annual turnover in excess of £50m and currently runs 49 properties.