Worker infected factory with peanuts in revenge for being told to remove girlie calendar

A maintenance engineer who had been warned about having a "girlie calendar" at a Nottingham factory got revenge by spreading peanuts around the site causing £1.2m in lost production, a court heard.

Paul Bentley, 41, of Clifton , went on trial yesterday accused of possessing peanuts to contaminate goods and making threats to kill a member of Pork Farms staff. He denies the charges.

On July 12, 2007, a cleaner discovered about 20 nuts on the floor of a locker room. No nuts are allowed inside the factory and it was "simply a nut free zone" said prosecutor Mark Van Der Zwart. Bentley, who had clocked in at 7.20am, had come into the area where the cleaner had been and asked her what was happening.



"As soon as she found them [the nuts] she literally stood guard over them before members of human resources were able to arrive," said Mr Van Der Zwart. As the day progressed, more and more nuts were found in various areas of the factory and by 4pm a decision was taken to stop production.

The prosecution said this was the act of someone deliberately trying to harm the factory and led to it being shut down temporarily. He said the loss to Pork Farms was £1.2m as a result of lost production.

The defendant had been asked to attend the police station so he could be interviewed about what he knew. He denied being in possession of any nuts that day. The trial continues.