Food Safety

A Birmingham restaurant owner has been given a suspended jail sentence and banned from running a food business, after Environmental Health Officers (EHO) found live mice in the premises.

During visits to the pizza parlour in 2008, Birmingham EHOs saw mice running around the restaurant and across equipment, including the kebab rotisserie. There were dead mice on sticky boards and a mouse was seen eating a chip.

The owner claimed there was not a problem. However, emergency closure orders were served on three occasions when standards did not improve.

At Birmingham crown court he admitted 12 breaches of food hygiene regulations, changing his earlier plea of not guilty moments before the trial.

The offences related to failing to control pests and to keep the premises and equipment clean and poor structural maintenance.

His defence was that he was not the food business operator but the Judge found he was ‘wholly in control’.

The judge sentenced the owner to 36 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, and prohibited him from running a food business under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006. He also ordered him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and keep in touch with the probation office while he was prohibited. He was ordered to pay £750 towards the council’s £13,900 costs.

Birmingham’s chair of public protection, said: ‘Operators such as this are not welcome to do business in Birmingham. This is a great result for us and is testament to the excellent work of our environmental health officers.’