Thatcham take-away fined for serious fire breaches

Kings Chinese take-away in High Street was fined £11,219 after pleading guilty to 12 fire safety breaches

A CHINESE take-away restaurant in Thatcham has been fined more than £5,000 for putting its staff at risk by failing to provide adequate protection from fire.

The joint proprietor at Kings, Onn Yan Lai, pleaded guilty t o 12 charges under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Reading Magistrates Court, on February 1.

Royal Berkshire Fire Authority brought the charges following an inspection of the restaurant by safety officers in July 2010, who were called in after environmental health officers found serious breaches of fire safety regulations.

The High Street premises also include sleeping accommodation for staff.

The inspection identified extremely serious contraventions of the fire safety regulations, particularly as people were sleeping on the premises.

These included inadequate provision for fire escape routes, no adequate fire alarm system, failure to take adequate fire safety precautions to protect staff and members of the public, obstruction of fire escape routes, combustible items obstructing fire escape routes and inadequate fire evacuation training for staff.

There was also no fire risk assessment in place, no emergency lighting system for the premises and no maintenance of firefighting equipment.

The fire authority's safety legal support manager, David Walden, said that some businesses continued to treat compliance with fire safety legislation as an option.

He said: “This financial penalty shows that the courts do not agree.

“This was a clear refusal to meet statutory requirements to ensure the premises was provided with adequate fire safety measures.”

He added: “If you look at all of these issues together you arrive at a potentially very serious and life-threatening scenario.

“We have a small quorate of businesses that, regrettably, for some reason, don't comply with health and safety and fire safety.

“It was regrettable to prosecute but we have a duty to protect not only members of the public but the staff who might work there.”

Mr Lai was awarded credit for his early guilty plea and his previous good character.

He was ordered to pay fines totalling £5,750 and costs of £5,469.50.

Mr Lai could not be contacted by the Newbury Weekly News went to press.