UK court delays Cadbury salmonella case sentencing
LONDON (Reuters) - A UK court delayed sentencing Cadbury Schweppes Plc until Monday in a case concerning a salmonella-related health scare in Britain and Ireland during 2006 after the case over-ran, officials said on Friday.
Cadbury (CBRY.L), which makes Dairy Milk chocolate, has already pleaded guilty after being prosecuted by both Birmingham City Council and a council in Herefordshire, and the sentencing of both cases is being brought together.
A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council said both councils had presented their cases in Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, and Cadbury's mitigation would start on the morning of Monday, July 16. Cadbury is expected to face a fine over the case.
In June 2006, Cadbury admitted to the salmonella problem at one of its UK plants, and recalled more than 1 million chocolate bars in the UK and Irish markets, costing 30 million pounds ($61 million), as they could contain minute traces of salmonella.
Analysts expect any fine will not be material to the group as the fact that Cadbury had admitted its guilt early and that it was mistaken that the infection did not pose a threat to health would be seen as mitigating factors.
"Mistakenly, we did not believe that there was a threat to health and thus any requirement to report the incident to the authorities -- we accept that this approach was incorrect," Cadbury said in a statement, adding that it had spent over 20 million pounds to prevent this happening again.
Birmingham council prosecuted Cadbury under the UK General Food Regulations and Food Hygiene Regulations for, among other things, failing immediately to alert authorities it had reason to believe some of its chocolate was infected with salmonella.
Cadbury's UK chocolate manufacturing is based at Bournville, Birmingham, in the English West Midlands, while the alleged offence took place at its Marlbrook plant in Herefordshire, 80 km south-west of Birmingham.
Cadbury detected salmonella on January 19, 2006, at Marlbrook, which produces chocolate crumb mixture, then on June 23, it admitted the problem, which was linked to a leaking pipe.
Cadbury's shares ended off 1.2 percent at 655-1/2 pence in a firmer London stock market.
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