TWO caterers who provided food for a Bollywood charity night have admitted serving up dangerous food after 70 people went down with food poisoning.

Catherine Stevens and David Morgan from the Golden Heart Inn at Nettleton Bottom owned up to the fact that they failed to implement proper food safety procedures for their event catering business.

Appearing at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on Monday, the pair both pleaded guilty and were fined £3,500 each.

They were also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £120 and costs of £375 each, a combined total of £7,990 in fines.

The court heard that, in May 2013, the caterers provided Indian-style food and drink for a ‘Bollywood’ event at Birdlip and Brimpsfield Cricket Club in aid of the Great Western Air Ambulance Service.

Around 165 people came to the event and nearly 70 suffered food poisoning symptoms the following day.

Cotswold District Council received numerous calls from those who went to the Bollywood event to report their illness.

This prompted food safety officers to inspect the Golden Heart Inn and collect food and environmental samples. They then worked with experts at Public Health England on further investigations and it was confirmed that the food-borne illness was caused by the Clostridium perfringens bacteria.

CDC concluded that the Golden Heart Inn lacked adequate food safety procedures for events and was also concerned about the standard of the cooling and reheating practices for large scale events.

The business co-operated fully with the investigations and has now implemented suitable event food safety procedures.