A Trowbridge takeaway owner has been fined more than £6,700 by magistrates after admitting seven fire safety failings, including locking two doors on a fire escape.
Kenan Olmez, owner of Best Favourite Fried Chicken in Market Street, was prosecuted by Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Mr Olmez pleaded guilty to failing to undertake a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, storing combustible materials and obstructing the means of escape in a fire.
Magistrates heard the takeaway’s final fire exit had been locked with a key and so was not easily and immediately available. Mr Olmez also admitted having an internal fire door on an escape route locked with a key.
A fire door between the kitchen and a fire escape was wedged open and missing a self-closing device, and a door jamb, smoke strips and door seals were also missing.
Mr Olmez pleaded guilty to not complying with a prohibition notice issued after an inspection in February 2009, and was fined £1,100 for each offence. This was reduced to £742 for each offence in recognition of an early guilty plea.
He was also ordered to pay £1,500 towards the fire authority’s costs.
Fire service group manager Julian Parsons said: “It is unusual to have to undertake a prosecution and we only do so when we believe the fire safety failings are so serious it is in the public interest to do so.”
The charges were brought under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 on October 14 at North Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court, Chippenham.
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