Curry house boss hits back after hygiene fine

A restaurant owner, fined for food hygiene offences, has defended his business.

Jamal Uddin, 39, has run the Newent Tandoori takeaway in the town for 17 years, and said he had never received a complaint from a customer.

But after council officials took him to court and released images of a dirty storeroom in his restaurant next door to the takeaway, he said he lost almost a third of his business.

But Mr Uddin, who was fined £1,650 at Gloucester Magistrates’ Court, said the picture released by the council, which was sent out with a report on the restaurant’s food hygiene, was taken in a storeroom.

He admitted four offences under the Food Hygiene Regulations Act.

Mr Uddin said the restaurant had seen a dramatic drop in trade as a result of the report.

He said: “As soon as that picture went out, I lost 30 per cent of my customers.

“That was last week, I have no idea whether this week will be any better.

“Some of my customers have been coming here since we opened, and some of their children now come here.

“I’ve never, in all my time here, had a complaint from customers, or any complaints to the council. No one’s ever got food poisoning or put in any official complaint.”

He added that he was hoping to turn over a new leaf and would comply with all hygiene rules.

He said: “We have even demolished that store room. We didn’t need to, but we’ve done it to please the council and give customers peace of mind.

“I would like to say to my customers that we don’t operate a dirty kitchen here. We never have and we never will operate a kitchen in that state.” He added the restaurant had received a new three-star hygiene rating from Forest of Dean District Council after a recent re-inspection, but they could have got a higher grade.

He said: “They told me that if the building work on the storeroom hadn’t been going on, I would have got four stars.”

Keith Leslie, food and safety team manager for the Forest of Dean District Council, said: “The picture was taken in a storeroom used for the storage of food.

“The requirements are the same for kitchens and storerooms. In either case it needed to be in a decent condition, which it clearly wasn’t.

“The positive side is the fact that, after the court case was all done and dusted, he was due a re-assessment and he had improved so much he received a good rating.”