A BOURNEMOUTH trader has been fined for selling out-of-date food and altering date information on food packaging.

Samini Motaghi, of Star Supermarket, Christchurch Road, was ordered to pay more than £1,000 after trading standards officers took him to court.

Bournemouth Magistrates heard that a trading standards officer had visited the mini-market as part of an investigation following previous problems at the store.

On this occasion, the officer found several items of food on sale past the use-by date and that boxes of eggs had had the date-marking removed or concealed to make them appear fit for sale.

On closer inspection, the eggs themselves carried ink-jet markings indicating they should have been removed from sale a fortnight earlier.

Motaghi was fined £265 for the offence relating to the mislabelled eggs, with a further £135 each for three other sample offences. Costs of £349.66 were added, along with a victim surcharge of £15, to take the total of £1,034.66.

He told the Echo the offence only happened because he was busy opening another shop at the time and was unable to supervise operations at the Christchurch Road store.

Andy Sherriff, trading standards manager, said: “There can be no excuse for defrauding the public or putting their welfare at risk.

“I was shocked that a trader would even consider tampering with packaging for the sake of a few pence profit.

“Date codes on food products exist to protect the public and prevent the consumption of deteriorating and sub-standard food. We will always try to work with traders and help them understand how the law applies to their business, but we cannot and will not condone food fraud and dangerous corner cutting.”