A WEYMOUTH restaurant where raw meat was stored in buckets on the floor and insects were found in the vegetable store has been fined £5,000 for health and safety breaches.

The Weymouth Tandoori in Maiden Street, run by Jamal Uddin, 53, was found to have committed breaches of health and safety regulations going back to November last year.

Uddin, the owner of the business, pleaded guilty to four offences under Food Hygiene Regulations at Weymouth Magistrates Court.

A member of the Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s Environmental Health team discovered unsafe working practises and a poor level of hygiene during a routine inspection of the premises.

A council spokesman said following the case: “The business had a history of poor compliance with food hygiene requirements.

“In November 2006, Uddin accepted a formal caution when a piece of metal was found in a takeaway meal and in June 2007, hygiene notices were served for similar offences to those now found.”

During the inspection, health and safety breaches were found in the kitchen, food stores and in the yard outside near to the kitchen.

In the refrigerator, food items were not covered, with some items double stacked on top of each other.

The report stated that raw chicken was being kept in buckets on the floor of the kitchen.

In the yard near the kitchen, the inspector found walls and floors covered in bird droppings and feathers. Clean mops were being kept on a tool shed that was covered in pigeon faeces and the ‘outside drain was found to be smelling foul and sewage flies were evident by the open and unscreened kitchen window’.

The vegetable store had ‘insufficient lighting for cleaning to be properly carried out,’ the ceiling was covered in mould and a cardboard cover had been put under some rice bags.

The woodwork was found to be rotten underneath with ‘woodlice, centipedes and other insects emerging from it when disturbed’.

In the kitchen, knives used for food preparation were found to be encrusted with dirt and two large pans of cooked lamb were left uncovered and at room temperature for ‘excessive’ periods of time.

In mitigation, Simon Lacey, representing Uddin, said that the restaurant was his client’s ‘only source of income’ and that he employed a very small staff.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council ordered that the restaurant should be closed for one day while a deep clean of the premises took place.

Magistrates heard that the restaurant is now open again and compliant with regulations.

The structural problems have been rectified and the restaurant is being monitored by environmental health in order to maintain safe hygiene standards.

Chairman Sir Philip Williams handed down the £5,000 fine and ordered Uddin to pay £2,500 towards court costs.