The owner of a Narberth restaurant, The Megna Indian Cuisine Ltd, has been fined a total of £9,000 by Haverfordwest Magistrates after admitting to five food hygiene offences.

Mohammad Abdur Rashid was also ordered to pay £2,607.31 costs to Pembrokeshire County Council who brought the case, as well as a victim surcharge of £120.

The court heard on Tuesday that the breaches were found at the restaurant in Market Square during a routine inspection in October, 2013, by an officer from the Council’s Public Protection Division.

As well as revealing the lack of implementation of an adequate food safety management system, the officer found evidence of food not being protected against contamination, unclean structures and equipment and poor staff training and supervision.

After the hearing the County Council Cabinet Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services Councillor Huw George stressed that the Authority would not hesitate to take action where serious contraventions of the legislation were discovered by authorised officers.

He went on: “The level of fine demonstrated the serious nature of the breaches and spells a clear message to all the businesses for the need for an effective food safety management system.

“This system also needs to be properly communicated to, and understood and implemented by, food handlers at all levels.

“In premises such as this, the safe, hygienic handling and storage of raw meats and other foods is essential to prevent against food poisoning risks, especially that of E-coli 0157 cross-contamination.”

Councillor George said that while not excusing the serious nature of breaches identified at the premises, credit was due to the business for fully co-operating with the Council in dealing promptly with the highlighted risks.

He added; “I am also pleased to report that at the last programmed inspection, standards were being maintained and the premises was awarded a score of 3, which equates to ‘Broadly Compliant’ under the food hygiene rating scheme.”