Wine bar fined £100,000 for liquid nitrogen cocktail

A wine bar has been fined £100,000 after a teenager drank a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen and had to have her stomach removed.

Gaby Scanlon was with her friends celebrating her 18th birthday in October 2012 when she drank the shot Nitro-Jagermeister at Oscar's Wine Bar and Bistro in Lancaster.

Miss Scanlon, now aged 20, said her stomach began to expand and she was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

A CT scan found a large perforation and she spent three weeks in hospital as doctors removed her stomach.

In June, Oscar's Wine Bar Limited pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to one count of failing in the duty of an employer to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.

In its plea the company, registered in Swinton, South Yorkshire, admitted it failed to ensure the shot cocktail was safe for customers to consume.

Director Andrew Dunn, of Old Earswick, York, pleaded not guilty to being part of a corporate employer which failed in its duty to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.

The prosecution offered no evidence against him after a payment of £20,000 towards court costs was made.

It also failed to ensure there was a safe system in place with adequate controls to prevent customers being exposed to injury from the consumption of such drinks, and it had not made any suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

Following the plea, law firm Slater and Gordon said the incident had "completed changed" the life of its client Miss Scanlon who suffers from "episodes of agonising pain" and can no longer enjoy eating.