A CATERERS has been fined £8000 after falling foul of hygiene laws for a second time.

Fresh N' Fast Quality Foods, based at the Abenglen Industrial Estate in Betam Road, Hayes, must pay a £1000 penalty for each of the eight hygiene regulation breaches it admitted to, and £9136 in court costs.

The penalty was set at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The charges related to the improper storage of food, a lack of procedures to ensure hygiene, cleanliness, potential for food contamination, and workers untrained in food safety, following a visit by environmental health officers on January 11 2011.

The inspection came just over a month after the company was told to pay more than £8000 in fines and costs for six similar offences.

Identical charges against manager Mrs Jaspreet Sangha, and director, Mr Sukhwinder Sangha, were dismissed.

Vishal Sharma, operations manager at Fresh N' Fast said: "We admitted to the charges because we couldn't finance the legal costs.

"The business has been negligent in the past, but it could've been worked out outside the courts.

"They came back just weeks after we were fined, and we were still putting things right. We have made dramatic changes since then, and the owners have invested in the business to make improvements."

The company was fined £35,000 by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), after officers arrested illegal workers there following a raid in July 2010.