Former bakery director Udo Boschan has been ordered to pay $15,000 in costs, in the closing chapter of a court case over food hygiene standards at the Unanderra Betta Maid facility.
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On Tuesday Boschan was fined $3600 after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching the food standards code after it was discovered the bakery was using dirty equipment to prepare food, in conditions of “moderate to extreme” rodent and cockroach activity.
He refused to plead to a more serious food handling charge, linked to a salmonella outbreak at a number of IRT nursing homes.
In court on Thursday, Wollongong magistrate Michael Stoddart considered the Food Authority’s claim for costs of $70,000.
The court heard Boschan’s lawyer wrote to the authority’s legal team in August and December, expressing his willingness to plead to charges devoid of any reference to food contamination. There was no reply then, and it wasn’t until January 23 – on the morning of Boschan’s hearing - that the fifth charge was dropped under a plea agreement.
“It seems to me that these proceedings could have been brought to an end much sooner,” Mr Stoddart said. “If this was the case there would have been a significant reduction in legal costs to both parties.”