Illegal food manufacturer ordered to pay £35,000

Mohammed Imran Khan of Cleveland Road, Bradford was ordered to pay the amount at Leeds Crown Court today (Tuesday) at the end of an investigation into how he ran his businesses.

Environmental Health Officers from Kirklees Council working in partnership with Financial Investigators from West Yorkshire Trading Standards began an investigation into Khan in December 2013.

Khan was the owner of a business which was operating from Unit 3 Moor End Works, Balme Road, Cleckheaton supplying other food establishments in West Yorkshire whilst being unregistered and unapproved.

As a consequence no routine Food Safety Inspections had been undertaken at the premises by the council.

On December 17 2013 a warrant was executed at Unit 3 and a large commercial food manufacturing business was found to be in operation and a number of food safety contraventions were identified. A large quantity of unlabelled, unquantifiable meat was detained and later condemned and destroyed.

Other food products were incorrectly stored and were being prepared in unsanitary conditions or with equipment not fit for purpose.

The unit was supplying a number of sweet and food stores in the West Yorkshire area including shops trading under the name of La Jawaab.

On April 7 2015 Mohammed Imran Khan pleaded guilty to offences of being unregistered and/ or unapproved at Unit 3 and also at another La Jawaab shop in his control at 155 Manchester Road, Huddersfield together with a number of food hygiene offences.

The defendant already had previous convictions from April and June 2012 for food hygiene contraventions in relation to his La Jawaab shops at 610 Huddersfield Road, Dewsbury and 44 Oak Lane, Bradford.

Today, His Honour Judge Kearl QC sentenced Khan to six months in prison suspended for two years.

He assessed Mohammed Imran Khan’s benefit from his crimes as £66,277 with available assets of £35,000. An order was made in the sum of £35,000 and the defendant must pay this within three months or face a default prison sentence of 18 Months. Costs of £1,200 were granted.

Coun Steve Hall, Kirklees Council Cabinet Member for Place, said that the positive outcome of the court case was an excellent example of partnership working with Trading Standards officers and should send a strong message to other people who might think they can get away with contravening the law.

He added: “Food traders must be registered and subject to safety inspections. We will continue to prosecute in cases where we feel the health of local people is being put at risk by bad practice.”