Former owner of Norwich restaurant House of Tiago must pay £19,500 for food hygiene breaches

House of Tiago in Norwich has been fined for food hygiene breaches including a worker with dirty finger nails and a dirty fridge. Archant

The former owner of a Norwich steakhouse has been ordered to pay more than £19,500 in fines and costs for food safety and hygiene offences.

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House of Tiago restaurant. Picture: ANTONY KELLY House of Tiago restaurant. Picture: ANTONY KELLY

House of Tiago, in Tombland, was visited by council environmental health officers two weeks after it opened on June 12, last year, Norwich magistrates court heard on Wednesday.

Yvonne Blake, prosecuting on behalf of Norwich City Council, said they found the premises cluttered and dirty.

Ms Blake told Norwich magistrates that wall tiles in the kitchen were dirty and in poor condition and a fire exit was blocked by a cabinet.

She said the washbasin in the kitchen had been disconnected and there was no soap or means of drying hands.

House of Tiago. Pictured: Handwashing sink not plumbed in and covered in clingfilm. Picture: Supplied House of Tiago. Pictured: Handwashing sink not plumbed in and covered in clingfilm. Picture: Supplied

She also told magistrates there was a bad crack in the ceiling and the extraction system was covered in dust and light fittings were dirty.

Ms Blake said the restaurant failed to ensure staff maintained a high degree of personal cleanliness, as one food handler had dirt under his fingernails.

She said there was also no documented food safety management system in place.

Former owner Paul Gourlay, from Leeds, admitted 11 breaches of food safety and hygiene regulations and was fined £1,500 for each offence. He was also made to pay £2,919 in costs and a £150 victim surcharge. The fines and costs totalled £19,569.

House of Tiago. Pictured: Uncleaned fridge door. Picture: Supplied House of Tiago. Pictured: Uncleaned fridge door. Picture: Supplied

The court heard that the restaurant had since taken immediate steps to remedy the failures.

Chairman of the bench, Adrian Greenwood said: “You had been trading for two weeks under appalling conditions.”

But he gave Gourlay credit for his early guilty plea and accepted he had taken action to address all the concerns.

Tim Cary, for Gourlay, said the breaches concerned just one day and matters had since been put right.

House of Tiago. Pictured: Salad chef'’s dirty hands. Picture: Supplied House of Tiago. Pictured: Salad chef'’s dirty hands. Picture: Supplied

He said when the owner took over the building he found it in a much worse state of repair than expected, adding it was an “utter tip”.

He said Gourlay spent £200,000 on improvements and said the problems were caused by him opening the restaurant too soon.

“He is not a man who set out to run a bad restaurant. This is not a man who ran an unsafe restaurant,” he said. “It was not a case of profit before compliance. They made the mistake of opening before they were ready.”

Mr Cary said: ”If they left it for another couple of weeks he would not be sitting here now. The restaurant opened probably sooner than it should have done.”

House of Tiago. Pictured: Mould in the ice machine. Picture: Supplied House of Tiago. Pictured: Mould in the ice machine. Picture: Supplied

He said that Gourlay had also brought in an outside firm to put a food safety management system in place and train staff.

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