Double prosecution success for Slough council's food safety team
Slough Borough Council’s food safety team successfully prosecuted two take away premises last week with fines of more than £23,000 being given by magistrates.
The first Slough prosecution, which started in November 2005, saw Ms Sufina Razzaq, owner of the King 786 take away in Chalvey Road East, Slough, prosecuted at Bracknell Magistrates Court for three food safety and hygiene offences under the Food Safety General (Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995.
The three Slough offences were failure to keep the premises clean, fine of £1000, failure to keep equipment in the food premises clean, fine of £1000 and lack of a towel or appropriate way of drying hands at the wash hand basin, fine of £1000.
There was a significant risk of cross contamination in the premises from poor personal hygiene and inadequate cleaning and sanitising of food preparation surfaces, food equipment and failure to keep the food premises structure clean.
The public health was at risk due to the poor standards of cleanliness.
Ms Razzaq had pleaded not guilty to all three charges which resulted in a trial hearing. Evidence given by a senior council environmental health officer was accepted as factual truth of the conditions observed at the time of inspection.
Slough Borough Council was awarded £2,500 in costs.
The second prosecution was for Euro Fried Chicken on the Bath Road for five food safety and hygiene offences.
Each offence was given a £3,200 by Maidenhead Magistrates Court, totalling £16,000 and costs of £1,855 were awarded to Slough Borough Council.
Three offences were on 7th February 2006, which included failure to keep the premises clean, failure to maintain a high degree of personal hygiene, which involves inadequate washing of hands and evidence of smoking in the premises, lack of basic food safety and handling training for staff.
On 10th April 2006, two of the previous offences, lack of basic food safety and handling training for staff and failure to keep the premises clean were still outstanding.
Will Tomkins, senior environmental health officer for Slough Borough Council, said of the 786 prosecution: “This case took a long time to come to court, mainly because the owner pleaded not guilty. Finally the court took my evidence as fact and the take away has been fined and ordered to maintain the premises to satisfaction for the safety of the public.”
Levine Whitham, senior environmental health officer said of the prosecution for Euro Fired Chicken: “We have a duty to the public to make sure that each food premises in Slough complies with the law and is not, in anyway, harmful to the public.
“This court case will highlight to other companies just how tough we can be and that they must all make sure their premises are clean and their staff trained.”
Slough Borough Council