THE owner of a popular Indian restaurant has been ordered to pay £5,500 in fines and costs for failing to maintain a clean premises and enforce adequate food hygiene regulations.
Komruz Zaman, the owner of Compton’s Bengal Cottage Restaurant, was found guilty of failing to maintain adequate cleaning procedures despite repeated warnings and advice from Derbyshire Dales District Council health inspectors and Rentokil pest control reports during a six-month period from December 2007 to May 2008.
Zaman told the hearing at Derby Magistrates’ Court: “In 10 years I’ve never had a complaint or anyone who has suffered food poisoning, no one in town has a bad word to say about my restaurant — I do not know where the cockroaches are coming from.
“My kitchen and dining room are always clean. We clean it after service, brush up, mop up and brush up again. The kitchen is spotless and I have nothing to hide.” However, the court heard reports by Rentokil, had ticked the boxes for ‘stock damage, contamination, disease risk’ as far back as December 6, 2007 and again the same problems were noted in a January 2008 report and food debris behind equipment was noted on February 29, 2008.
Magistrates imposed a £4,000 fine for failing to maintain the premises, plus £1,500 costs as a stark warning to other businesses who fail to clean up their act but the hearing did acknowledge that since the May 9, 2008 inspection, the owner had taken positive steps including employing a new pest control contractor and his staff have undertaken level two food hygiene courses.
Colin Slaney, a pest control expert who is currently contracted to eradicate infestations at Bengal Cottage, told the court: “Once a cockroach is introduced to a building it is extremely difficult to eradicate them and they can thrive, regardless of whether a premises is clean or dirty.” In his closing statement defence solicitor, Robert Mundy, said: “Mr Zaman did not want to have a ‘tick box’ approach to cleaning procedures.
“He was there to over see things and take control, rather than adhere to the bureaucracy of a check list approach.
“Rentokil did not make the necessary number of visits they should have done, they should have done better.
“Cleaning food debris under the cooker is not going to make any difference once a cockroach is introduced as these creatures can live in the cleanest of environments.” Magistrates said: “In this case there is no dispute that on May 9 there was a cockroach infestation at Bengal Cottage.
“I cannot accept cockroaches suddenly appeared, given the premises history.
“The defence raised the argument that Zaman was let down by Rentokil, but pest control is a twoway street involving both contractor and client and the client cannot absorb liability by claiming the contractor did not do a sufficient job.”