A SIDCUP sandwich maker who flouted health regulations has been given a community punishment order and told to pay £5,000 costs.

Nigel Rogers, 40, of Raeburn Road, Sidcup, was sent by Bexley magistrates to Croydon Crown Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to 14 breaches of food safety and labelling regulations.

He had previously been prosecuted by Bexley Council's environmental health department for operating an unregistered sandwich business from a scrapyard.

Health officials knew he had moved onto another premises but it wasn't until August 2000 that they tracked him down to a mouse-infested unit in Pickford Road, Bexleyheath.

Emergency action was taken to close him down but again he moved his business elsewhere.

Council officers got a warrant to search his Sidcup home and discovered information which led them to the Elbourne trading estate, Erith.

They got a warrant to search the unit in October 2000 and found sandwiches being stored.

In September last year, it was discovered Rogers were making sandwiches again from another address on the same trading estate.

Again a warrant was used to enter the building where meat and fish products were being stored for sandwich making without any approval.

None of the Country Market sandwiches made and sold by Rogers were labelled properly.

Sentencing Rogers to 180 hours community punishment as well as paying costs, Judge Edward Southwell said an aggravating feature of the case was Rogers' four similar previous convictions.

"You are slapdash to the point of criminality," he added.