Shop owner sentenced to 150 hours’ unpaid community work

02 July 2015

An Aberdeen shop owner has been sentenced to 150 hours' unpaid community work at the city's Sheriff Court following inspections by Aberdeen City Council environmental health officers.

Vincely Paul Anthonymuthu, of Premier Stores, 121-125 Oldcroft Place, plead guilty to the three charges relating to non compliance with food hygiene legislation, and was also sentenced to 25 days in custody for repeatedly failing to attend court for the case.

Environmental health officers had inspected Premier Stores, formerly known as Keystore, on several occasions since the premises opened in 2008.

At the time of each visit, advice and guidance on compliance with food hygiene legislation was given. During an inspection in 2011, it was noted that hygiene matters that had previously been raised with the company remained unresolved.

In line with Environmental Health Services' Food Safety Enforcement Policy, three Hygiene Improvement Notices were served on Mr Anthonymuthu, the food business operator.

The issues related to:
•failure to put in place a documented Food Safety Management system;
•failure to repair damaged floor tiles within the shop;
•failure to clean the refrigerator resulting in a build-up of dirt and dirty pooling water at the bottom of the unit.

These notices required works to be actioned within a set timescale. As the owner of the business, Mr Anthonymuthu, failed to action the issues, the matter was reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

On 25 June 2015, Mr Anthonymuthu was sentenced to 150 hours' unpaid community work at Aberdeen Sherriff Court after pleading guilty to the three charges relating to non compliance with food hygiene legislation.

Andrea Carson, an Aberdeen City Council principal environmental health officer, said: "We have more than 2,000 food businesses registered in the city and on the whole, most act on the advice and guidance that we give during inspections.

"When there is repeated non-compliance with food legislation, we have statutory powers that allow us to address these issues formally to ensure that food sold in Aberdeen is safe, treated properly and comes from premises which are maintained in a clean and hygienic condition."