Barking Indian restaurant owner fined over waste disposal

An Indian restaurant owner has been fined for failing to provide paperwork about rubbish disposal.

Eastern Paradise in Ripple Road, Barking, was visited by council enforcement officers in a routine trade waste inspection on January 14 last year.

Cllr Margaret Mullane, cabinet member for enforcement and community safety, said: "It is a legal responsibility for businesses to keep a record of how they dispose of their waste and when asked by the council to provide documentation that shows this.

"This business not only failed to do this, but continued to ignore council requests despite being given extensions and several reminders. The business owner now has to pay a larger fine and has a criminal conviction on his record."

When asked to provide waste transfer notes, the eatery failed to do so, according to the council.

As a result, business owner Molik Choudhury was issued with a notice in accordance to Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

It required him to provide copies of waste transfer notes for the communal waste within two weeks.

In spite of being given a seven-day extension on January 29, 2020 - and an email exchange explaining what was needed - Mr Choudhury did not provide the documents, the council has said.

Failure to provide waste transfer notes is an offence for which the maximum fine if found guilty in a magistrates' court is unlimited. The offence also carries a criminal conviction.

The business owner was, however, offered a fixed penalty notice of £300 as an opportunity to avoid prosecution.

But Mr Choudhury failed to pay the fine, despite being sent numerous reminders, and was summoned to court, according to the council.

The case was heard at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on May 5 where the defendant was found guilty and ordered to pay a £300 fine, £250 in costs to Barking and Dagenham Council and a £32 victim surcharge.

Mr Choudhury was contacted but did not respond to a request for comment.