Prosecutions

Restaurant fined £16,000 for carbon monoxide levels 700% above limits 26/04/2011 A restaurant has admitted 10 health and safety and food hygiene offences, including failure to repair a gas burner emitting carbon monoxide levels of more than 700 per cent above acceptable limits.

The owner of the restaurant was fined £13,000 by Kings Lynn magistrates and ordered to pay £3,000 costs.

Two offences involved the failure to comply with an improvement notice concerning the restaurant’s unsafe gas installation and a deferred prohibition notice concerning unsafe access to the restaurant’s beer cellar. Neither notice was complied with over a 12-month period.

A number of gas leaks were identified, including carbon monoxide levels 700 per cent above occupational limits in the kitchen.

The owner eventually carried out the gas work pending the prohibition notice. Other offences included failure to keep the premises clean and in good repair, failure to ensure food equipment was clean and in good repair and failure to comply with a food hygiene improvement notice.

A spokesperson from Breckland Council Environmental Health team leader commented: ‘The burners have a set part per million but as soon as a large stock pot pan was put on it, the exposure limit went up to six figures. The burners were not the best and the stock pot shrouded the burner and obstructed the air flow so there was not effective combustion and values escalated.’

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