Convenience store ordered to pay £4,062
A Birmingham trader was ordered to pay more than £4,000 for four offences under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013, at Birmingham Magistrates Court yesterday (7 September 2015).
Eklamur Rahman, 47, of Cartland Road, Birmingham, who owns Bangla Food Services, a convenience store based at 1 Walford Road, Birmingham, was fined £1,376 and ordered to pay £2,671.10p towards court costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Rahman, who pleaded guilty to two offences at an earlier hearing, was found guilty of two further offences relating to the non-compliance of two Hygiene Improvement Notices.
Birmingham City Council prosecuted Rahman after environmental health officers found evidence of mouse activity throughout the premises during a routine inspection on 9 June 2014.
Officers issued a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice, as the conditions posed an imminent risk to injury of health as food was either contaminated or at risk of contamination by mouse droppings and urine.
Magistrates granted officers a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order on 11 June 2014 and following a revisit on 12 June 2014, the shop was allowed to reopen as the risk to public health was removed.
Two Hygiene Improvement Notices were served on 5 August 2014, requiring staff to be given suitable training and for a documented food safety management system to be implemented by 15 September 2014.
However when officers revisited Bangla Food Services on 17 September 2014, neither of the notices had been complied with.
Cllr Barbara Dring, Chair of the city council’s Licensing and Public Protection Committee said: “Environmental health officers found mouse droppings throughout the premises, including on shop shelves, in the butchery department and the rear store room.
“Officers have continued to work with the business to ensure conditions are brought up to necessary standards, as required by legislation
“All food businesses are included in a regular inspection programme which is designed to ensure they all operate to a good standard, and firms that don’t comply with these strict standards will be prosecuted.”
ENDS
Media contact: Emma Brady, Press & PR Officer, on 0121 303 6969 or email emma.brady@birmingham.gov.uk
