Owner of takeaway that left six people seriously ill gets suspended sentence

A former takeaway owner has walked free from court after a salmonella outbreak put one customer in hospital for 10 days and left five others seriously ill.

Muhammad Khan, who owned Blakenall One Peri Peri Chicken in Walsall, was given a suspended prison sentence yesterday after pleading guilty to six hygiene breaches putting customers at risk

It is the second time in six months 30-year-old Khan has been in court charged with hygiene breaches.

Khan, of West Bromwich Road, was jailed for six months in May for a catalogue of serious health and hygiene offences including a mice infestation at another premises, Pizza Cottage in Caldmore Road, after it was visited by inspectors in January last year.

Six people, two days

Six people, including two children, became 'seriously unwell' after contracting salmonella from the same shop in July last year.

On July 8, Annette and Brian Harris ordered lamb doner kebab and chips from the takeaway.

One week later an ambulance had to be called and Mr Harris was taken to the high-dependency unit at Walsall Manor Hospital where he spent the next 10 days.

They both suffered with salmonella and food poisoning.

And as Mr and Mrs Harris were eating on July 8, four other customers were already feeling unwell after visiting the takeaway the day before.

On July 7, a mother ordered food on the Just Eat app and by the following morning she was unwell. She was diagnosed with salmonella along with her two sons who both had to have antibiotics.

Another customer bought a small pizza on the same day and by the next evening she was unwell with sickness and diarrhoea.

'People poisoned for two weeks'

Mr Mark Jackson, prosecuting, said: “We have no idea quite how many people suffered as a consequence of these failings, for a period of something like two weeks people were poisoned.”

Mr Jackson said Khan had turned a deaf ear when he was given advice and training from hygiene experts.

He said: "This is a man who had regulators investing time in him and trying to put him on the straight and narrow to make sure the premises were safe."

Environmental health officers visited the open takeaway on July 19 last year after reports that a customer had been admitted to hospital.

They found salmonella in swabs from a sponge, sink and two doner meat cutters.

Food diary sheets which were supposed to be filled out daily had not been touched in nine months.

And the temperature of the kebab meat was 51.2 degrees, when it should have been at least 63 degrees.

'No clue'

"The staff had no clue what degree it was supposed to be," Mr Jackson added.

Mr Christopher Loach, defending Khan, said the defendant was suffering from ill health at the time.

He added: "This was clearly not an act which he intended to cause harm but he accepts that he did.

"It was a flagrant disregard for the safety of customers, but not intentional."

Khan pleaded guilty to six charges of failing to comply with food safety provision, after salmonella was found on pizza, doner chicken meat, lamb doner meat and utensils.

Khan was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and a curfew between 8pm and 8am for six months. He was ordered to pay almost £800 to the victims.

Recorder Simon King told Khan at sentence: “I don’t see that it benefits anyone to send you back inside today.”