A SUPERMARKET has been fined £1,000 after a customer found mouse droppings in a bag of mars bars.

Sainsbury's supermarket off Avenue of Remembrance, Sittingbourne, pleaded guilty to selling confectionary that was unfit for human consumption after the find in May last year.

Magistrates fined them £1,000 and ordered them to pay £3,480 in costs at Sittingbourne on Monday.

The court heard how the incident took place on May 8, 2006, when a bag of fun size Mars Bars was bought from the store.

The case was investigated by Swale Borough Council's environmental health team after the customer, Mr Longhurst, contacted the council when he found the droppings after opening the packet.

After an inspection it was found that there was no pest activity in the store and it was an isolated incident.

Defending on behalf of the company, Karen Tayler said: "The company is extremely disappointed about this. It is not a pleasant situation.

"The company does spend a lot of time and money in setting up systems to avoid situations like this."

She said that they have a number of systems in place including regular inspections and said this was the first complaint of this nature and they had no previous convictions of such contamination.

Speaking after the case, Swale Borough Council's borough solicitor, Duncan Milne said: "This was a serious breach of food safety requirements by a well-known high street retailer.

"In bringing this prosecution Swale Borough Council is working on behalf of the public to ensure that businesses, big and small, never forget their responsibilities, and to keep Swale a healthy and safe place to live and shop."