Restaurant pays £65,000 in compensation for diners’ food poisoning
A restaurant has paid out almost £65,000 in compensation claims after 50 diners fell ill with food poisoning.
The eatery was issued a fine of £10,000 and its director was ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid community service.
In addition to this, seven people affected by the outbreak have so far received a total of £45,000 for their personal injury.
The case refers to food poisoning which occurred in August 2008 and involved the use of raw eggs in tiramisu.
The prosecution explained how many of the customers, six of whom ended up in hospital, suffered vomiting, headaches, fever and stomach cramps.
The restaurant’s parent company has now ceased its trading operations after bosses admitted to selling food for human consumption and three hygiene offences.
Defence injury lawyers for the restaurant said that it had taken rapid action to clean the premises following the outbreak and was able to reopen three days later. A full apology was also issued on behalf of the restaurant to the customers affected by food poisoning.
The company served an average of 2,500 customers a week and had never experienced problems with cleanliness previously.
Updated on 29/03/2010