Brent Council has warned that it will continue to crack down on shisha bars which flout smoke-free legislation as three more proprietors are ordered to pay over £1,000 each following legal action.
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The latest prosecutions bring the number of shisha bars successfully taken to court by Brent since August 2011 to a total of seven.
Brent Consumer and Business Protection Team is carrying out unannounced, routine late night visits to local shisha bars and warns it will prosecute when it discovers smoke-free regulations being broken.
The most recent cases are:
Case 1
- On Tuesday 12 March 2013, at Willesden Magistrates Court, Osman Hersi pleaded guilty to failing to prevent persons smoking in his premises and was fined and ordered to pay costs totalling £1,020.
- During a routine inspection, officers found a number of customers smoking shisha pipes at O Lounge II, 815 Harrow Road, London, NW10 5NJ.
- The proprietor, Mr Hersi, claimed at the time that he was trading as a ‘specialist tobacconist’ and was therefore exempt from the smoking ban.
Case 2
- On Tuesday 26 February 2013, at Willesden Magistrates Court, Mohammed Faiz Azim pleaded guilty to breaking smoke free regulations and received fines and costs totalling £1,550. Magistrates also ordered shisha pipes to be forfeited and destroyed.
- Officers from Brent Council’s Consumer and Business Protection Team, together with HM Revenue and Customs and police, visited VIP Shisha Lounge, 612 Kingsbury Road, and found several customers smoking shisha pipes within the substantially enclosed area at the front and also inside the premises.
- Shisha pipes were also being served without the legally-required health warning. The proprietor, Mr Azim, could also not prove that duty had been paid on his tobacco products.
Case 3
- On Tuesday 12 March 2013, at Willesden Magistrates Court, Tariq Walid Alhamzawy was sentenced in his absence. He and his company were ordered to pay a total of £3,966 in fines and costs.
- Mr Alhamzawy owns Arabian Night Moon Light, 224 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2NX and is also the director of Arabian Night Moon Light Ltd which trades from the same address. Officers found customers smoking shisha in substantially enclosed areas during a routine inspection on 24 January 2013.
Brent’s Lead Member for Crime and Public Safety, Councillor Lincoln Beswick; said: “We are determined to protect local people’s health and are working hard to ensure that shisha bars abide by the smoke-free legislation.
“I am warning shisha bar owners that we will continue checking up on them and will prosecute if necessary, which can result in fines of up to £2,500.”
The council estimates that the number of Brent shisha bars has risen from approximately 12 in 2009 to over 50 today.
According to Cancer Research UK, a typical hour-long shisha session can see users inhale the same amount of smoke as from more than 100 cigarettes.
Shisha tobacco contains over 36 times more tar and twice as much nicotine as cigarette tobacco so is more addictive and carries a far greater risk of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.
