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A restaurant in the Nottinghamshire town of Mansfield has reportedly been fined more than £8,000 after it was found to have breached fire safety regulations.

The restaurant, Il Rosso, was visited by an off-duty fire safety inspector in July 2011. The inspector noticed that the main entrance of the restaurant was locked, despite it being marked out as a fire exit. The inspector identified himself and pointed out the problem, and management temporarily unlocked the door. However, they later locked it again and refused to open it.

Further investigations carried out by the Fire Authority on the Nottingham Road restaurant revealed that on two other evenings, the fire exit was locked again. The company was prosecuted for failing to adhere to fire safety regulations, possibly due to a lack of fire safety training. Jason Cox, the company’s defence solicitor, said:

“They were trying to protect customers from visitors from other pubs who may have caused trouble,”
“The company is of good character and has never had any health and safety issues in the past.”

Despite this, Il Rosso’s owners were ordered to pay a fine of £8,715 for the fire safety breaches.