TWO shopkeepers from Burnley have been ordered to pay more than £300 each, after pleading guilty to selling food past its sell-by date on two occasions.

Mir Afsar and Mohammed Zaman, partners in the Costcutters shop, in Hargrove Avenue, sent a letter to Reedley Court which said they would not be attending the hearing but pleaded guilty to six offences of selling food after its use-by date.

Geoff Smallshaw, prosecuting on behalf of Trading Standards, told the magistrates that a trading standards officer visited the Costcutters shop on October 9, 2001 to carry out a routine inspection.

He found five items past their use-by dates, including sausages and bacon, with the dates October 6 and 7 printed on them.

At this stage, it was the intention of the department to deal with the matter by a written caution but a number of weeks later, on November 19, another officer went to the shop and found 14 packs of Wildlife Fromage Frais items past their use-by dates on display for sale.

Reading from a statement, Mr Smallshaw said that Afsar had told the trading standards officer he had not understood what was meant by 'removing the items from sale' and thought it meant he had to take them out of the fridge but could sell them elsewhere in the shop at a reduced price.

He said items were now checked every morning and anything found to be past its date was thrown in the bin.

The pair were fined £200 each, £30 for each of the first five offences and £50 for the later offence, and ordered to pay £131.79 each in costs.