A former pub manager has been fined after mouldy vegetables and slime-covered meat were discovered on shelves in the kitchen.Lisa Pickersgill, who was the manager at the Huntsman and Hounds pub in Spexhall, near Halesworth, until April 2008, on Thursday admitted 13 food hygiene offences at Lowestoft magistrates court.

A former pub manager has been fined after mouldy vegetables and slime-covered meat were discovered on shelves in the kitchen.

Lisa Pickersgill, who was the manager at the Huntsman and Hounds pub in Spexhall, near Halesworth, until April 2008, on Thursday admitted 13 food hygiene offences at Lowestoft magistrates court.

Miss Pickersgill, 25, was in charge of the village pub when officers

from Waveney District Council's environmental health team visited for a routine inspection on August 15 last year.

Yvonne Blake, prosecuting for the council, told the court that the officers found pineapple rings covered in mould, Stilton and mushroom soup which had started to ferment, out of date tubs of guacamole, mouldy carrots, rotten Iceberg lettuce, a white cabbage covered in flies and 5lb of cooked sliced roast lamb with green slime on it.

The officers gave Miss Pickersgill a warning about the food they had found, which was unfit for human consumption, the dirty equipment and condition of the pub's poorly maintained kitchens.

They returned to the pub, on Stone Street, for further inspections in October and December, but found that no improvements had been made.

A final inspection was made in April this year, shortly before Miss Pickersgill left the business, and the kitchens were still in the same state.

Ms Blake said: “This is done to protect the public and to stop them from becoming ill from food which is stored and servedlike this.”

Alison McManus, defending, said that Miss Pickersgill, who now lives on Yeoman's Close in Bungay, did not have previous catering experience and soon found herself out of depth managing the pub.

She said: “She gave verbal warnings to the chef to remove mouldy items from the back of the fridge but he did not care.”

Miss Pickersgill was fined £665.

Chairman of the bench Sue Walpole said: “We view this as a very serious offence. You had multiple warnings and made no effort to comply. You put the public's health at risk. Let's hope we never hear or see anything like this again.”