A WESTBURY café owner has been prosecuted by Wiltshire Council’s food safety for offences under the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.
Conrad Burrows of Summer Road, Westbury, pleaded guilty to 16 offences at Swindon Magistrates’ Court.
He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £1,200 towards the costs of the prosecution.
Environmental health officers inspected his Westbury café in May 2017 and found the owner preparing and serving food without any hot water. He had no food safety management system to keep the café clean, protect foods from harmful contamination and maintain good stock rotation, resulting in out of date foods having to be surrendered for disposal.
The officers discovered that the premises had opened for business without prior registration with the council and before alterations to create a new kitchen and store room had been completed.
The business closed voluntarily in May 2017 for a deep clean and repair of the faulty hot water system. But despite this early action by the EHOs and subsequent advice, follow up visits in June, July, September and November last year revealed continuing failures to meet legal standards.
Enforcement action was taken to secure improvements.
Mr Burrows pleaded guilty to his failure to comply with three of these hygiene improvement notices.
Jerry Wickham, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for public protection, said, “It is unusual in Wiltshire to have to resort to prosecution of a food business as a sanction.
“Our food safety officers work tirelessly with businesses to help them secure high standards of hygiene which is reflected in the excellent hygiene ratings seen across the county.
“We take no pleasure in this action but it is sometimes necessary where businesses do not follow guidance and advice given or if there is a flagrant disregard for the law.
“Whatever the circumstances that led to the operation of the café in a poor state, the health of customers is paramount and food hygiene breaches of this type will not be tolerated.”
