FISH covered in frozen maggots and other food nibbled by rats was discovered by health inspectors at a Brookenby food processing business.

Magistrates in Lincoln were told how hundreds of people may have been affected by the sale of produce from Allan Rich Seafoods, on the Binbrook Trading Estate, to top restaurants as far away as London.

Maggots found on fish products by health inspectors at Allan Rich Seafoods, Binbrook Trading Estate, Brookenby.

Joanna Riddell, West Lindsey District Council’s community health manager, showed the court photographs of what was found when environmental health officers made several visits to the processing unit.

This included: A box of fish covered with maggots; a box of mouldy, smelly, soft fish steaks; rat-damaged fish and packaged fish products; damaged and crushed boxes and open fish with no packaging; fish and fish products that were beyond their best-by dates – some going back to 2001 and 2003; and blown packaging, which indicated that the fish had been allowed to defrost and then been frozen again.

The court heard inspectors discovered “an accumulation of filth and refuse” – resulting in a serious risk of food contamination.

West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) had already successfully applied to close the business on September 22. The company’s managing director, Roland Saldanha, said it could be forced into liquidation as a result of the prosecution – with the loss of 11 jobs.

Mr Saldanha said his business had been inspected by a different officer over the last seven years and there had been no major problems.

Magistrates granted an application from the council for the destruction of 200 tonnes of fish, worth £120,000.

The company will also have to pay costs for the incineration and the court ruled that the company did not have the approvals it needed to run its business.

The company had been using the licence number GR010 which was withdrawn from one of Mr Saldanha’s former businesses – Roland International – in May 2001. No evidence of authorisation for Allan Rich Seafoods had been found.

Mr Saldanha said: “I honestly believed that my approval had been transferred. The bulk of my stock was top-quality fish and the other material was going for fish meal. The problem with the cold store was with a condenser and that has now been fixed.”