Sickening photos reveal full horror at vermin-infested takeaway covered in faeces and grime
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These sickening photos reveal the full horror inside a filthy takeaway where a dead mouse was found rotting and droppings lay close to kitchen equipment.
The disgusting conditions at Fab 4 Pizza in Liverpool were uncovered after an anonymous tipster alerted Environmental Health Officers about a mouse infestation last year.
Staff had been informed mice had been seen in the shop but did not seem to be interested, a court heard.
Mice infesting the takeaway were so used to the eating the fatty food left on the floor they did not respond to usual bait, prompting officers to use a lard-based alternative, prosecutors said.
The tip-off led to an unannounced inspection on March 18 last year which unveiled a catalogue of shocking problems - including mice droppings near a kebab shaver, on floor surfaces, near a microwave, fridges and freezers and on work surfaces.
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
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(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Inspectors also found a rotting mouse corpse, Bread being stored on the faeces-covered floor, grease on surfaces and around equipment and boxes of raw burgers stored directly above open boxes of ready to eat lettuce.
Owner Sadik Cicek, 47, was today ordered to pay £5,140 in fines and costs by a judge at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, reports the Liverpool Echo .
Cicek, of Leeseps Road in Toxteth , had pleaded guilty to eight breaches of food safety laws relating to lack of cleanliness, failure to control pests and the lack of a food safety management system.
Catherine Ellis, prosecuting on behalf of Liverpool City Council, told the court an inspection in 2015 revealed a lack of cleanliness and the fact there was no separate basin for food handlers to wash their hands.
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
She told the court: “On March 7, 2016, the council received an anonymous complaint indicating that mice had been seen in the shop and that staff had been informed but did not seem to be interested.
“The complainant also felt the premises was dirty as though they had not been cleaned in a while.”
Mr Cicek agreed to close immediately to carry out cleaning and rectify the problems.
But a second unannounced inspection, on July 28, 2016, revealed that problems were still rife in Fab 4 Pizza.
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
Ms Ellis told the court: “Staff appearing to be working in the kitchen area were not appropriately dressed, and were simply wearing ordinary clothing with no covering for clothing or hair. There was a risk of contamination.”
Cicek this time refused to close voluntarily, forcing the council to obtain an emergency prohibition order from the courts.
The takeaway was allowed to re-open with the lowest zero star hygiene rating on August 4, but still the risk to public health was not dealt with.
Ms Ellis said the council launched another inspection on February 23 this year, which revealed a lack of cleanliness and mouse droppings.
But kebab meat and fried chicken were also found to be too low a temperature and still no food safety management system had been put in place.
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
The court heard Cicek was interviewed under caution and claimed the premises were clean enough, and even tried to argue that pictures of mouse droppings were not in fact droppings.
Christopher Rowe, defending, said despite these claims his client cooperated with the investigation and had attempted to comply with the requirements.
He said: “He says he never had any complaints about the food. It is a requirement of law to have a proper system in place, notwithstanding this on his evidence there was never anything that happened, or any issue.”
(Image: Liverpool Echo WS)
He said Cicek had made a continuous loss on the business despite owning it for seven years, and had to be subsidised by loans from friends and family in Turkey.
District judge Wendy Lloyd, sentencing, said: “Mr Cicek failed to accept that the premises were still inadequate or unclean.
He claimed that he was cleaning the premises every day. However the photographs reveal that if he was cleaning, his attempts simply were not thorough enough.”
Cicek was fined £2,640, ordered to pay £2,500 in prosecution costs and a £30 victim surcharge.