Owner of dirty Wolverhampton shop where dead rat was found gets food business ban
The owner of a dirty shop where a decomposed rat and droppings were previously found has been given a suspended jail sentence for breaching food safety rules despite warnings.
Environmental health officers found vermin droppings, food stored near a toilet, a dirty floor, food not labelled or past the best before date on sale and poor equipment among the list of failings at the cramped Etin-Osa Afro-Caribbean Food in Princess Street in Wolverhampton.
Despite repeated warnings, proprietor Margaret Omo-Osagie, aged 52, failed to carry out sufficient improvements to the rented premises, formerly known as AJM Foods, between 2018 and this week.
At Wednesday's hearing she was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and banned from managing any food premises in England and Wales for five years.
Sentencing her for 10 offences under the Food Safety and Hygiene regulations, Judge Simon Ward said: "I have listened with care to what the prosecution describes, more than five years during which you were operating a small food business in Wolverhampton which is posing a risk to public health.
