Caffe Nero cleared of health and safety offences after Ashtead woman has surgery to remove wire from her throat

The wire that was lodged in Ms Willans' throat. Pen lid for scale. Picture by SWNS.

Cake shop worker Katherine Willans, 34, felt sick after eating the panino during a lunch break with her mum at a branch of the coffee shop chain in Putney High Street.

She then spent three days feeling ill with the wire stuck in her throat before going to hospital on August 3, 2014.

During the operation to remove the bristle Ms Willans even suffered a drop in heart rate and was put on an ECG monitor.

Ms Willans described swallowing the inch long wire - which came from a wire brush wrongly used to clean a grill - as an "unpleasant experience", and has been put off paninis "for life".

January 22: Caffe Nero to face trial after woman has surgery to remove wire from her throat

But a judge at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court cleared the chain of four counts of breaching food hygiene regulations after hearing staff ignored strict training procedures and brought in the wire brush because they thought it was more efficient.

Ms Willans arriving at court last week.

Wire brushes were also found in Caffé Nero branches in Clapham Junction, south London, and Boston, Lincolnshire. 

A branch manager told the court she "didn't think it was her duty" to prevent staff from using the brush.

After the verdict, Ms Willans, of Ashtead, Surrey, said: "One of my reasons for bringing this case was because I didn't want an unpleasant experience like this happening to anyone else.

"Changing Caffé Nero's procedures or protocols could help prevent that happening, but I feel that this verdict doesn't necessarily mean that they will.

"The point of this case was to change policies so I could be confident this would never happen again. But that hasn't happened".

The court heard workers at the Putney branch had brought in the brush, which was even used by the store manager, at least a year before the incident.

During the three-day trial, a number of staff testified that they regularly used the brush despite knowing what they were doing was against procedure.

Mike Atkins, prosecuting, told the court: "This case is about what happens after the training, what happens to make sure that what the staff are trained in to do is in fact what they go on to do in practice.

"It is a matter of common experience staff don't always do what you want them to do, staff don't always follow instructions they are given.

"Employers are expected to think in advance about how and why staff might deviate from procedures set out".

He said: "The brush was kept in a draw right next to a grill, no doubt because that was a convenient place to have it.

"It is right it was not on the counter or on display, but it was hardly very hidden away."

He added: "The law demands high standards - especially from large companies serving large numbers of people - and Caffé Nero's system, while good and well thought out, lacked that important aspect of validation and steps that could have helped to ensure procedures were being followed".

He added that Caffé Nero could only say "that someone on the day had inexplicably failed to follow their training.

"The prosecution say that this is not good enough as an answer".

The Putney branch of the Caffe Nero.

Jonathan Goulding, for Caffé Nero, said: "Despite that training, a member of staff acted entirely contrary to it and the evidence again is overwhelming about that.

"The offences were down to the acts of fault of one of those members of staff.

"There is no doubt that the use of the wire brush was and must have been a deliberate breach of careful training given by Caffé Nero to their employees.

"This was a very regrettable thing that happened to Ms Williams but it doesn't mean that Caffé Nero is criminally liable for it."

District Judge James Henderson said: "It is easy to think of other steps that might have been taken, but it seems clear that this was indeed indoctrinated into employees during various stages of their training.

"In my view, Caffé Nero has made out the defence that they did indeed take all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence."

A spokesman for Wandsworth Council, which brought the prosecution, said: "This was a very disappointing outcome and was in our view, contrary to the evidence presented to the court.

"At the end of the day an innocent Caffé Nero customer suffered a very serious injury that required surgery under general anaesthetic to put right.

"We felt this incident exposed serious shortcomings in the company's procedures which is why we brought the case to court, but ultimately we must accept the judge's verdict."