"Filthy" restaurant fine is halved (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

"Filthy" restaurant fine is halved

THE OWNER of a Chinese restaurant - who was fined almost £10,000 for allowing food to be prepared in filthy conditions which posed a serious health risk to customers - has had the penalty halved on appeal.

At Gloucester Crown Court on Friday, Tatyan Cheung, who runs Tatyan's restaurant in Castle Street, Cirencester, appealed against the fines imposed by Cirencester magistrates in January.

Rupert Low, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Cheung had pleaded guilty to 13 offences under the Food Hygiene Regulations when he appeared before the magistrates.

He was fined £750 on each offence.

Mr Low said that when health inspector Gareth Harvey visited the upmarket restaurant he found frozen ducks being defrosted in a sink full of water next to another sink full of drain clearing rods.

The kitchen floors were covered in grease, paint on the walls was flaking off into sinks and onto the floor, black mould was growing on the walls and drains were flooding over the floor.

In a refrigerator he found food containers placed on cooked food, including rice and chicken.

A garden shed was also being used as a food store and a deep freeze had paint on the door which flaked on to the food it contained.

Mr Low added that the restaurant had been visted by inspectors seven times in the five years before the offences and Mr Cheung had carried out all the improvements they had called for.

David Whittick, defending, told the court: "Mr Chueng's problem is that he was very understaffed.

"He has been unable to recruit the right people in this country and the

British Consul General in China has refused applications for work permits for some of the people he has tried to recruit.

"Because of his staff shortage work that he would have wanted carried out was not done.

"At the same time he does not have a good relationship with his landlord.

He has blocked every move to alter the lay out of his kitchen."

Reducing the 13 fines to £380 each, making a total of £4,980, Judge James Tabor QC said: "The type of kitchen was such that if any member of the public had seen it they would not have gone near the restaurant for food.

"But now Mr Cheung has put right nearly everything required to a very high standard."

The judge made no order for the costs of the appeal.