 A SANDWICH bar owner has been ordered to pay £16,000 for poisoning dozens of city centre workers with salmonella. Paul Evans of Crumbs sandwich shop in Dale Street, Liverpool, was fined £6,000 for the environmental health hygiene offences and told to pay £10,000 in costs. Evans was making home-made mayonnaise with eggs not given the lion mark in October 2002. Among the 51 victims of food poisoning listed were Liverpool city council executive director for regeneration Charlie Parker and chairman of Liverpool magistrates committee Norman Draper. Senior colleagues at the council reported that Mr Parker had to be admitted to intensive care because his poisoning was so severe. It is thought likely that there are many other victims who may never know they had salmonella or where it came from but several of the victims have threatened to take out civil prosecutions. Alan Auty from Liverpool council trading standards said: "Mr Evans was making his own fresh mayonnaise for his sandwiches using raw eggs but hadn't checked if they were certified salmonella free. "He did not set out to poison people and was originally getting eggs from a certified supplier which were lion marked but the supplier changed and he didn't bother to check. "Lion marked eggs guarantee, amongst other things, that they're salmonella free. "Although 51 cases were taken to court I would be surprised if less than 100 people were affected." It is understood that the case was moved from Liverpool Magistrates Court to Chester because staff at Liverpool were involved in the case. Mr Auty added that although the incident was unpleasant for the people concerned, it could have been a lot worse. He said: "In a way it was very fortunate that it affected the people it did, like Charlie Parker and council employees, because we were alerted to it very quickly and could take action within a week. "Otherwise, if we had to wait for the normal notification system when people go to their GP and they then report the outbreak, it could have been another two weeks and many more people would have been affected." Norman Draper, chairman of Liverpool magistrates was struck down for a week with the illness. | 
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