St Albans Pizza Company Fined 10K

8 August 2014, 07:04 | Updated: 8 August 2014, 07:14

A pizza company in St Albans has been fined nearly £10,000 after inspectors said it breached hygiene regulations.

Parizon Limited, which runs Pizza Go Go in London Road, has been fined £4,900 for failing to keep premises and equipment clean and breaching safety regulations.

The City and District Council successfully prosecuted the company for 16 offences after inspecting the premises in November last year. The case was heard by the West Hertfordshire Magistrates' Court in Watford on Monday (4 Aug).

The court ordered the company to pay the £4,900 and to also make a contribution to the Council's costs of £5,000. The company was also requested to pay a victim surcharge of £35, totalling £9,935.

Twelve of the offences concerned non-compliance with Hygiene Improvement Notices served on 4 September 2013. This was in breach of regulations 6(2) and 19(2) of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.

Two further offences were committed in breach of regulations 19(1) and (2) of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013. These involved failure to keep equipment clean and failure to keep the premises clean.

The final two offences concerned breaches of regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. These constitute offences under Section 33(1) (c) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974.

Mr Raju Reddy, a director of the company pleaded guilty to the offences and gave his mitigation to the court.

The company was fined £300 for each of the 14 offences in breach of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013. It was also fined £350 for each of the two Health and Safety offences, in breach of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. This made a total fine of £4,900.

Councillor Daniel Chichester-Miles, Portfolio Holder for the Environment for St Albans City and District Council, said: "The Council carries out regular inspections of food premises to ensure that they comply with food safety and hygiene regulations.

"All restaurants and takeaways are given hygiene scores that can be checked on the Food Standards Agency website at: http://ratings.food.gov.uk/search-a-local-authority-area/en-GB. Where restaurants and takeaways are in breach of the regulations we will take action and ultimately take them to court as we have done in this case."