Disgusting photos of a dirty butcher's shop have been released after the owners were forced to pay thousands of pounds for food hygiene offences.
Brothers Faisal Musakhel and Zabihullah Musakheil, who owned the now-closed Noor Halal Meat, which traded as Bilal Halal Meat, in Tooting, were prosecuted after council staff found the shop put the public "at serious risk of harm".
Hygiene inspectors first found mouse droppings and urine, as well as filthy food preparation areas at the Upper Tooting Road premises during a routine visit last year, Wandsworth Council said.
There were dead mice under a packet of noodles that were being displayed in the shop, as well as below the sink in the store room.
Fresh meat was being stored above blood-stained cardboard, and there was blood encrusted on a shelf in the freezer. The tool used to push meat through the mincer was covered in mouse droppings, as was the area where meat was stored before being minced.
Food packets, and even old pest control records, had been chewed by rodents.
The shop was closed for remedial work, and was allowed to open once it became safe, but a few weeks later in October 2017, inspectors arrived again unannounced.
They said they found the shop filthy again, with evidence of a mouse infestation, including droppings in ready-to-eat foods like bombay mix, in boxes used to carry meat.
The rear storeroom floor was covered in blood, as was the mincing machine, and there were dead flies in storage areas.
Both brothers pleaded guilty at Lavender Hill Magistrates Court on October 9 this year to seven offences under food hygiene and safety laws.
Zabihullah Musakheil was fined £1,270 plus a £110 victim surcharge and ordered to pay £1,000 towards the council’s prosecution costs, and Faisal Musakhel was fined £1,100 with a further £110 victim surcharge and told to pay £1,000 court costs.
Wandsworth council’s consumer protection spokesman Cllr Guy Senior said: "This was an appalling catalogue of failures by these men to run a safe and hygienic food business.
"Their cavalier attitude to cleaning and pest control led to serious breaches of the law and put members of the public at serious risk of harm.
"Businesses that flout the law in this way not only face a significant financial penalty but also the resulting bad publicity that these cases always bring. If food businesses want to avoid this fate they need to make sure they fulfil their legal and moral responsibilities towards their customers."
