The owner of Flavour Chicken in South Street, Romford, has been hit in the pocket after admitting nine food safety offences, despite several warnings to clean up his act.
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Mohammed Nazakat was fined £750 for each of the nine offences by Havering magistrates, and was also ordered to pay £2,600 costs, totalling £9,350.
Council officers first became aware of poor hygiene at the fast-food restaurant during a routine inspection in January 2012. When Nazakat took over as proprietor of the business the following month he was made aware of the concerns.
The Council made it clear that improvements must be put in place including written food safety procedures, adequate training for staff in food safety and ensuring that food was protected from risk of contamination.
But during further visits by the Council in March and May no improvements were made and a number of hygiene improvement notices were served.
When Council officers made another visit in June 2012 to check the notices were being complied with, they found even more food safety issues including staff members not wearing aprons, insufficient lighting, inadequate hand-washing facilities and the outside bin and storage area was filthy, as were the walls, floors and equipment in the kitchen area.
They also found raw chicken stored too closely to cooked food and a cleaning cloth was tested and found to contain excessively high levels of enterobacteriaceae, a bacteria associated with poor hygiene which can cause food poisoning.
It was following this visit that Havering Council knew court action was the only option.
Nazakat admitted the nine offences at Havering Magistrates Court on Friday 26 July.
Councillor Lesley Kelly, Cabinet Member for Public Protection, said:
“It is absolutely disgusting that despite so many visits and advice given by our officers this restaurant owner failed to clean up his act and continued to break the law, putting the health and wellbeing of every person who ate there at risk.
“He blatantly flouted the law and I am pleased that magistrates saw fit to impose a hefty fine.
“We want to work with local food businesses to help them comply with food safety regulations and that’s why for each business we inspect we give a food hygiene rating from zero, where urgent improvement is necessary, to five which is very good. Residents can check these ratings online before they purchase take-away food or eat out in the borough.”
