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A restaurant in Ansley, a village in Warwickshire near Nuneaton, has been caught breaching food hygiene regulations and potentially putting its customers at risk.

The owner of the Hoar Park restaurant, John Lea, has now been fined £4,876 after admitting two breaches of food safety laws. When inspecting the restaurant in September 2012 as part of a routine check, environmental health officers from North Warwickshire Borough Council found a number of problems, including:

• Fridge and freezer temperatures that were hotter than the legal limit
• Incorrect or lack of labelling on cooked food products
• Out-of-date products including soup, cooked ham, pate, bacon and sausages

After uncovering these issues, which indicated either neglect of responsibilities or a lack of food hygiene awareness training, the council issued Mr Lea with a Hygiene Improvement Notice. However, on a later visit a couple of months after the first, Mr Lea had still not made all of the required improvements.

The restaurant owner was charged with failing to put a proper food safety management system in place and for failing to comply with an official Improvement Notice. Steve Maxey, from North Warwickshire Borough Council, said of the case:

“Mr Lea was not making regular checks on the running of his business and had paid no heed to the Hygiene Improvement Notice issued after the inspection in September last year.”