Dawat restaurant operators to go to trial over potential poor hygiene

Wednesday 15 August 2018

The manager and company behind Indian Restaurant Dawat faced seven counts of failing to provide proper hygiene, sanitary premises and suitable food preparation standards in court earlier this week.

Hadi Mohammed Ulla, 46, pleaded not guilty to the charges he faced, and will now go to trial in November, with a further date set aside in December. The company was not represented and its pleas are awaited.

The charges date back to 9 November 2017 when the restaurant received no stars in an Environmental Health inspection, but the first pleas were only entered earlier this week. 

The restaurant immediately closed its doors in 2017 following that, and improvements were made before it reopened again in December 2017.

However the restaurant has since closed permanantly, and "major refurbishments are now underway" to the building up at St Martins, with the inside already having been stripped back to its shell and a note on the door apologising for any inconvenience while they are temporarily closed.

The owner of the premises informed Express that Dawat had now closed, but a new restaurant would be opening. The note itself sits under the Food Hygiene Information Scheme notice which states the premises are not yet rated.

Pictured: Notice on door of Dawat.

In Guernsey's Magistrates court both Mr Ulla and the company - Mahera and CO. UK Limited - faced the same seven charges set against them, but only Mr Ulla was in court to make formal pleas. He pleaded not guilty to all seven offences cited.

The charges were all listed to have occurred on 9 November 2017, contrary to the 1976 Food and Drugs (Food Hygiene) Order and were noted as follows:

Count one: Running a food business at premises which were insanitary and that food was exposed to the risk of contamination.

Count two: Running a food business at premises where the floor, ceiling, woodwork and doors were not kept clean nor in good repair, food preparation surfaces were unclean and the premises were not suitably protected from the risk of vermin.

Count three: Using equipment for food preparation that was of inadequate condition.

Count four: Failing to maintain hand wash basins in working order and failed to provide and maintain an adequate supply of hot water, supplies of soap and other such suitable detergent and drying facilities.

Count five: Failing to maintain suitable and sufficient kitchen ventilation.

Count six: Being a food business operator and failed to have in place, implement or maintain a permanent procedure based on the Hazard Analysis by Critical Control Point principles.

Count seven: Failing to provide adequate food hygiene training.

When the charges were brought the company "vowed to make changes" to satisfy Environmental Health and had said they were working with them to improve their rating. Although Environmental health was satisfied that enough improvement had occurred to allow the premises to reopen in December 2017, it has since closed again for major refurbishment. 

The defence advocate was asked if he had any indication at this time how he expected the company to plead. As this was not known an interim date would be listed for the case and it was agreed that if the company pleaded guilty they would only need to attend the second day of the trial for sentencing.

Pictured top: the former premises of Dewat restaurant.