The owner of an Indian restaurant in the Cumbrian town of Barrow has been caught breaking fire safety regulations, despite having received a formal warning from fire chiefs once before.
Ferdous Ahmed, the owner of the Mithali restaurant, admitted in Preston Crown Court that he hadn’t adhered to an official Prohibition Notice which required him to stop allowing people to sleep on the floor above his restaurant. The Notice was issued after inspectors visited the property and found that it wasn’t safe for people to live on the second floor, due to a lack of the proper fire safety measures.
The restaurateur is no stranger to prosecution for fire safety offences, as he had previously been convicted of eight offences. For these offences, he was fined £10,000 and given a six-month suspended prison sentence. At the time, Mr Ahmed had far greater control over the running of the restaurant, but was obviously badly in need of a course of fire safety training. In the latest set of charges, the businessman claims he was only running the restaurant for a short period of time. He will be sentenced next month.