A Cwmbran restaurant has been fined over £4500 for food hygiene and safety offences at Abergavenny Magistrates on Tuesday (8 September).
The owners of Mr Jones Restaurant trading from Cwmbran town centres new leisure facility on Glyndwr Road pleaded guilty to 6 offences brought by Torfaen Council’s Environmental Health Officers.
An inspection of the popular restaurant took place on the 8 January 2009, just 6 days after the premises opened for business and found the following offences:
1. the kitchen and servery floors were pooling with water presenting a slip risk
2. hand basins had not been installed anywhere in the kitchen to enable food handlers to wash their hands
3. food surfaces where being cleaned with detergent and were not being disinfected to remove food poisoning bacteria
4. food handlers had not received basic food hygiene training to prevent food contamination. An example included a food handler seen using a tissue he had blown his nose with to shuffle a tray of food
5. no documented food safety system existed
6. the owners of the business failed to register with the Council before they opened
After hearing the case Magistrates’ fined Baystand Ltd £3000 for the offences, ordered them to pay the Council’s full costs of £1628.10 and pay a £15 victim surcharge. The total fine was £4643.10.
Cllr Gwyneira Clark, Torfaen Council’s Executive Member for Planning and Public Protection, said: “The owners of the restaurant could have easily avoided prosecution had they contacted our environmental health officer’s before they opened. Our Officers would have visited the premises to check it was upto standard and ensure safe procedures were in place to protect both the business and its customers. Sadly, they didn’t and have paid the consequences.”
