Takeaway boss fined over its hygiene

The manager of a takeaway restaurant in Wolverhampton, where a former worker was murdered, has been fined after risking customers' health.

The Caribbean Hut in Broad Street, Wolverhampton, repeatedly ignored council orders to improve its hygiene standards, a court heard.

The takeaway served potentially contaminated food, the court was told.

As the man in charge of the kitchen, it was Ranjit Singh Bhella's duty to comply with basic cleanliness requirements.

But on a routine inspection in November last year council inspectors found raw meat stored next to vegetables, with the risk of cross-contamination leading to severe food poisoning, said Jacky Brambles, prosecuting.

Staff were not given any protective clothing or hand-washing facilities and had a poor knowledge of food hygiene, she said.

There was also inadequate temperature control and monitoring of high-risk foods and poor levels of cleanliness and structural repair, the court heard.

Bhella, aged 35, of Wells Road, Penn, admitted failing to comply with a hygiene improvement notice and not complying with the regulations as a food business operator.

Bhella was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £1,100.

In October 2008 a kitchen hand at the Caribbean Hut restaurant was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend who also worked there as a waitress.