A chef has been fined for failing to show a food hygiene sticker showing a rating of one in his sandwich shop. Ahmed Kadir said he refused to display the rating at Pasha Sandwich Bar in Cardiff because he believed the assessment was "wrong".
Kadir, 43, told WalesOnline he invested around £50,000 into the former optician's shop in Cowbridge Road West, Ely, so he could open a branch of his family's business Pasha there in around May 2022. Two months later an inspector gave the business a food hygiene rating of one – meaning 'major improvement necessary'. The inspector returned in September only to find no sign of the sticker.
A Cardiff Council spokesman said: "The defendant advised officers that he had been away on holiday and had not seen the letter and sticker. The officer supplied another letter and sticker but a subsequent visit the following day found that the sticker was still not displayed and the defendant refused to place the sticker in the window."
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The sticker was still not on show when the inspector visited in October and November. This resulted in Kadir being taken to Cardiff Magistrates' Court earlier this month for three counts of failing to display the rating. Although he did not attend he was found guilty of all charges and ordered to pay £2,258. But when WalesOnline contacted Kadir he claimed our conversation was the first he had heard of the court case or his fine.
"I didn't know about this, I swear to God," he said. "I have never seen one letter. [The fine] is too much, man. I have two kids and a mortgage to pay."
Kadir, who closed the shop around four months ago, believes the letter about the court date must have been sent to the Cowbridge Road West premises, which he is no longer renting and has been taken over by a barber shop. Asked why he refused to show the sticker he claimed there was "no reason" for the rating, adding: "This was a brand new shop. If I take you now – well, it's closed now, but you could not find anything wrong with it. I'd spent around £50,000 and everything was brand new – the fridge, the oven, the floor, the walls. Everyone was saying: 'This is the cleanest shop ever.'"
We pointed out that the inspector had given Pasha a 'generally satisfactory' rating for the cleanliness and condition category but an 'improvement necessary' for hygienic food handling and 'major improvement necessary' for management of food safety. Kadir replied: "I was always wearing a glove. In every food shop you cannot do without a glove or do anything bad because people won't come back... Everything was recorded in the book, everything was in the fridge 24/7."
Kadir was away at the time of the inspection and had left a family member in charge of the shop. He said he trusted his family's knowledge of food hygiene after more than 20 years in the industry. His relatives run the successful Pasha Sandwich Bar in Clare Road, Grangetown, which has a food hygiene rating of four.
He added that he himself is an experienced chef with a résumé which he claims includes roles at Guy Ritchie's former pub The Punch Bowl in Mayfair, Ma Cuisine in Richmond, and Hotel du Vin in Henley-on-Thames. "A sandwich bar is like a nothing to me," he said.
Kadir claimed he told the inspector he wanted to speak to her manager because he did not agree with the rating. "The lady must have come in 20 times [to check if the sticker was showing]," he said. "I took my apron and walked out. I was saying: 'Send me the manager, I want to speak to the manager.'"
He had been excited to start his own shop but never wants to run one again after the Ely business' failure. "It didn't work, I don't know why. The location maybe – not enough space for parking. A small business is the biggest risk now. I have never seen anything in my life like the electric. I think it was £1,500 a month and rent was about £800."
Kadir, who hopes to find a chef job soon, feels the fine is not fair given he has no income and is not claiming benefits. His debt to the court comprises penalties of £1,320, a victim services surcharge of £528, and prosecution costs of £410. He said he plans to contact the court after picking up the letter from his old premises but he is unsure if he will appeal.
A spokesman for the Shared Regulatory Services said: “Displaying food hygiene ratings is very important as it provides information to the customer so they can make an informed choice whether they want to eat at a business or not. If the notice is not displayed the restaurant or café is misinforming the customer. In this case the hygiene sticker wasn’t displayed. Despite numerous attempts by officers to get the business owner to put the sticker in their front window the defendant refused so enforcement action was taken.”
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