CURRY AND MICE
EX-OWNER OF POPULAR INDIAN RESTAURANT FINED AFTER ‘WIDESPREAD MOUSE DROPPINGS’ WERE FOUND IN KITCHEN
A CARDIFF restaurant was so dirty that mouse droppings were found in the kitchen and customers were at risk of food poisoning, a court has ruled.
Himalaya, in Wellfield Road, Roath, Cardiff, was inspected by environmental health officers on multiple occasions from November 2018.
Officers found mouse droppings in the kitchen area where food was stored and prepared, a build-up of grease and dirt and rubbish in the backyard.
Although no complaints were made by members of the public, officers were concerned customers were at risk of developing food poisoning.
Samsul Islam, the former owner of the restaurant, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court yesterday after pleading guilty to eight offences for failures as a food hygiene business operator and four offences relating to displaying the wrong hygiene rating.
Yesterday he was fined £1,100 – escaping a fine that would be “in the tens of thousands” because he is unemployed – plus £400 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
Islam sold the business earlier in the year and Himalaya has been under new ownership since April.
Islam, 32, who is unemployed and living with his parents, was prosecuted on behalf of Cardiff council.
Prosecutor Clive Pursey told the court that when officers entered the Indian restaurant on November 21, 2018, they found evidence of “widespread mouse droppings” throughout the food storage and food preparation areas and there were bags of rubbish piled up in the backyard.
Photos taken during the inspection show a build-up of dirt, grime, hair and mouse droppings.
The officer established that there was a “real risk of contamination of food to satisfy the health risk condition”.
Islam voluntarily closed the restaurant and was given advice on the work that was needed to be carried out. The restaurant was handed a damning food hygiene rating of one – meaning “major improvement necessary”.
Further inspection on November 22 showed that structural work to stop mice entering the building had been carried out and a deep clean had taken place and the restaurant re-opened.
But at another inspection on January 30, 2019, when Islam was away on holiday, officers found more “widespread mouse droppings throughout the food storage and preparation areas”. Mouse faeces were seen around the skirting boards, behind chest freezers, underneath the raw meat table, underneath shelving where raw onions were being stored, on the lid of a food storage container and on a shelf where drinks were being stored.
The officer also noted a chopping board that was badly scored and poppadoms being stored in the wrong containers. When the officer spoke to one of the chefs and asked how he cleaned work surfaces, he showed a “sticky greasy bottle of sanitiser”.
Islam was also displaying a food hygiene rating of two in the window and not the latest of one. The restaurant was again closed voluntarily.
When officers visited again on February 1, they were satisfied bait boxes had been laid and hadn’t caught any rodents and more work to close holes had been completed and the kitchen was clean. The restaurant re-opened.
Islam told the court: “My father was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago and since then I have been running back and forth to London.
“I would go away and leave my staff in charge. If I wasn’t there to tell them to clean they wouldn’t do it.”
Islam also told the court he had arranged visits from a pest control company but they failed to show.
He told the court he has been unemployed for about three months and has been living off savings, of which he has around £1,000 left, and didn’t profit from the sale of the busines. Islam had to pay a total of £1,530. However, District Judge Shoman Khan told him that if it wasn’t for his financial troubles the fine would be “in the tens of thousands”.
Mr Khan said: “Members at the public were at a real risk of food poisoning.”
A Cardiff council spokesman said: “We take these matters extremely seriously.”