Wine bar dodges £100,000 fine after serving liquid nitrogen cocktail to teenager who had stomach removed
It’s impossible to imagine the pain that Gaby Scanlon must have endured on her 18th birthday party when a bar served her a liquid nitrogen cocktail.
She collapsed as clouds billowed from her mouth and nose and was rushed to hospital for life-saving surgery to remove her stomach.
Preston crown court heard last September that Andrew Dunn, director of Oscar’s Wine Bar Limited in Lancaster, had been warned about the drinks by a health and safety officer before the incident. “They knew it was dangerous,” said the prosecution.
It may have come as some consolation to Gaby, from Heysham, Lancs, when the company was fined £100,000.
But that fine, I can reveal, has never been paid, and Oscar’s Wine Bar has gone into liquidation.
The list of creditors includes HMRC, which is owed £32,000 for VAT, national insurance and income tax, while NatWest Bank is owed £36,000, and fines and legal costs add another £123,000 to the debt.
The company claims to have assets of only £12,500. The Statement of Affairs prepared by liquidator Begbies Traynor shows that, once other debts are included, there’s a total deficit of almost £700,000.
At the court case the wine bar pleaded guilty to one charge of failing in the duty to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.
The court heard how Gaby was given a free Nitro-Jagermeister shot by a barman.
Andrew Dunn had seen similar drinks on sale in London and was impressed by how they looked.
Judge Pamela Badley said that it was “astonishing” that no risk assessment had been carried out into the dangers of the drink. The liquid evaporates into a harmless gas when it comes into contact with air, creating a dry-ice effect.
However, if it has not burnt away fully the liquid can freeze objects including human tissue in a matter of seconds.
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