A FORMER pub landlord has been fined £400 for serving a customer a cup of coffee unfit for human consumption.

Terence Coulter, previously from The Bull Inn, Tonbridge Road, Barming, near Maidstone, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Food Safety Act 1990 brought by the borough bouncil at Maidstone Magistrates' Court.

He was fined £400 and ordered to pay £400 towards the council's costs. Mr Coulter is no longer at The Bull Inn.

The court heard that on March 11 last year, a customer suffered a burning sensation in the throat after drinking from a cup of black coffee.

The coffee was later found to be contaminated with a substance very likely to be a chemical descaling agent, rendering it unfit for human consumption.

Ron Wallis, Maidstone's council's principal environmental health officer for food and safety said: "Businesses need to take care to prevent the contamination of food with specialist cleaning compounds as these can have serious consequences."