Mouse droppings found in cooking pan at Walsall restaurant
Mouse droppings were found throughout a restaurant store room – inside a cooking pan, on shelves next to food containers and underneath a refrigerator.
Inspectors found East End Tandoori was in breach of ‘serious’ food safety and hygiene regulations when they carried out a routine visit last May.
Owner Sultan Miah has now been slapped with a £4,000 bill – nearly half of the Walsall restaurant’s annual profits – although the 54-year-old has avoided his takeaway in Hawes Close being shut down.
Speaking at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court prosecutor Kerry Munro said: “A number of seriously poor conditions and food hygiene contraventions were found.
"Mouse droppings were found throughout the outside rear store room.
"Mouse droppings were found on the concrete floor beneath two refrigerators, on shelving among tins of food, inside a large cooking pan, on the floor among containers of cleaning chemicals, on the floor next to a bag of onions and on a yellow food container.”
Miah, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, admitted six counts of failing to comply with EU provision concerning food safety hygiene.
A baking tray 'contaminated' with grease and 'dirty food containers' were the source of another charge.
Worn chopping boards were the reason for another.
The other two charges were concerned with Miah's failure to supervise or train staff in food hygiene, and failure to implement and maintain hazard analysis guidelines.
The chair of the bench said: "The bench finds these offences very serious indeed particularly given that you are serving food to the general public."
They fined Miah a total of £2,400 - £400 for each count - and ordered that he must pay £1,600 in prosecution costs as well as a £40 victim surcharge.
Last year the restaurant made just over £10,000 in profit while Miah is also on benefits, the court heard
Speaking in his defence Amrisha Parathalingam said: "He has demonstrated a good understanding as to what was required as a business and accepts that on this day May 19 last year things had fallen short on his behalf.
"He tells me he invited health inspectors the following day and the gaps identified had been rectified, the outside storage area had been cleared to the satisfaction of officers. His pest control contract had been activated and he had called them to his premises earlier that day."
She added: "Because the inside of the restaurant was relatively clean there was no need to close the restaurant."
