Rodent droppings
“The problems began to occur when the rodents managed to get their way into the premises. Try as best he could, Mr Cheung was unable to control the problem as you can see. He should have contacted a proper pest controller and set up a contract.
“The problem he finds is communicating with other people that do not speak Chinese and communication is often done via his 16- year-old daughter.”
Mr Reedy said because there was only the two of them working there, there was no-one else to point out the problems and standards had slipped. He said with profits of only about £11,000 it was difficult to employ someone to help keep the place clean.
Mr Reedy said once the problems were discovered, Cheung had attended to them and recent inspections, including one the previous Friday, had showed no further problems.
He explained that the saucepan found with rat droppings had not been used for cooking and the cricket bat had been bought to stir a large vat of curry sauce. Mr Reedy said there was proper equipment available for the task but it was difficult to get hold of.
He said once the bat had been used to stir the curry it was left in the corner of the storage room and the rats had gnawed at it.
“But there was another new cricket bat that had not been gnawed at, which was to be used when the next vat of curry sauce was made up. He has now purchased an instrument to stir the vat,” Mr Reedy said.
“The vast majority of the problems were confined to the dry food store area and not the kitchen itself, although there were some problems there it is acknowledged.”
He said the father-of-four had never been in trouble before and these were not the standards that he had upheld in the past.
“It’s a case where the problems overwhelmed Mr Chung and the premises had not generated the income he thought it would have done so he could employ people to help him in the kitchen.”
Councillor Graham Brown, board member responsible for public protection, said: “I’m delighted with the outcome of this case. Food hygiene is an important public health issue that the council takes seriously.
“The presence of rats in a food premises presents a significant risk to health. When officers find these conditions in food premises, immediate action has to be taken to protect the health of the public.”
