Factory worker ‘maliciously’ laced Nando’s hummus with metal ring pulls | UK News

A factory worker has been jailed after ‘maliciously’ contaminating food destined for Nando’s and The Ivy.

Garry Jones, 38, worked for Harvey & Brockless Fine Food Company, based in Evesham, Worcestershire, which supplies restaurants across the country.

He worked as a ‘picker’ on the late shift and responsible for collecting ingredients for the next day’s cooking – but he was caught on CCTV contaminating food products.

He was seen putting rubber gloves, plastic bags and metal ring pulls in salad dressing and Nando’s hummus.

He also mixed unknown substances into raw ingredients which were set to be used the next day, and admitted mixing fish sauce with soy sauce on one occasion.

Harvey & Brockless’s products go through a metal detector as they leave the kitchen area, meaning the products couldn’t have been tampered with during production, and it must have happened in the storage area.

The company was made aware of the contamination, which affected dozens of products, last October.

An internal investigation found multiple boxes of food had been tampered with, and the company called in the police when they realised an employee must have been behind it.

Jones was arrested on November 10 and questioned by West Midlands Police, and admitted during his police interview to combining fish sauce with soy sauce.

He also admitted a separate charge of burglary, after breaking into a colleague’s home through a window and stealing their pink hairbrush.

Jones pleaded guilty to one charge of contaminating goods and one charge of burglary, and was sentenced at Worcester crown court on Tuesday to 39 months in prison – 33 months for contaminating goods, and a further nine months, to run consecutively, for the burglary.

Mehree Kamranfar, senior crown prosecutor for the CPS West Midlands, said: ‘This was an extremely disturbing case that could have had far-reaching implications had the defendant not been caught.

‘Jones knowingly and maliciously contaminated food products that were going to be distributed to some of the most popular high street restaurants across the country.

‘The cross-contamination caused alarm both within the company and externally, as Jones’s utter disregard, particularly in mixing fish sauce with raw ingredients, could have threatened serious harm to those with allergies.

‘In addition, sabotaging the food products supplied by Harvey & Brockless not only cost the firm thousands of pounds, it also threatened to destroy the company’s reputation.

‘When faced with the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution team Jones pleaded guilty to both charges.

‘I want to thank West Midlands Police and the prosecution team for building the strongest possible case, which saw him convicted and today sentenced.’

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