TESCO has been fined £21,000 after two Gwent stores were found to be selling peanuts labelled with the incorrect weight.

Newport Magistrates Court heard earlier today that a customer visited the Pontypool Tesco store on December 1, and noticed that the ticket on the shelf advertised a packet of Walkers Sensations peanuts as containing 165g when the actual weight stated on the packet was 150g.

He complained to Tesco customer services before ringing Torfaen council’s trading standards department.

Torfaen council's senior trading standards officer Matthew Bartlett visited the Pontypool store on December 2.

He found that 10 packets of Mexican smoked chilli peanuts were incorrectly labelled, along with 14 packets of Thai sweet chilli peanuts.

He also noted that an offer on the product also stated the weight as 165g of the peanuts reduced from £1.99 to £1.

Mr Bartlett spoke to the store manager and told him to raise the issue with Tesco’s head office.

That same afternoon Mr Bartlett went to the store in Ebbw Vale.

He found 15 packets of of the Walkers Sensations Chinese Szechuan Pepperi peanuts advertised on the shelf as 155g, but the weight on the packet was 140g.

While, nine packets of Walkers Sensations Mexican Smoked Chilli peanuts were advertised on the shelf as 165g, but the product weight on the packet was 150g.

Mr Bartlett returned to the Pontypool store on December 4, to check that the problem had been sorted.

But found that two packets of the Mexican Chilli peanuts were still advertised as 165g, and that the earlier offer with the misleading weight figure displayed had been extended.

During the hearing, on behalf of Tesco, Charles Arrand entered guilty pleas to five charges.

He told the court that Tesco “was sorry” adding that the large organisation has “many thousands of products and offers” with the shelf pricing information having to be changed “continually”.

“Tesco gets that bit right because of routine and this represents a rare departure from this,” he added.

He explained that the weight of the product was wrong because of human error and that after head office had been informed the information was changed on the system.

But as the offer information had already gone out to stores with the incorrect information printed, it took longer for it to be rectified in store.

The court was told that Tesco expressed “regret” and would be donating £20,000 to charity, with £15,000 going to the Nepal earthquake appeal and the remainder to a Torfaen based charity.

Deputy District Judge Hodkinson fined Tesco a total of £21,000, and imposed a victim surcharge of £500 and costs of £5,149.

Mr Bartlett said: “Consumers often look for deals when doing their family shop, however these deals may not always provide customers with the best value for money.

“When we receive consumer complaints we will challenge stores to rectify their mistakes. The guilty plea confirmed Tesco accepted their actions could have misled customers.”