Owner of Woody Grill restaurants fined £30,000 for hygiene offences

Woody Grill, a six-site London-based restaurant group, has been fined more than £30,000 for hygiene offences at one of its operations in Shepherd's Bush.

Company owner Cengiz Erpolat pleaded guilty at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court to eight hygiene offences in his Uxbridge Road restaurant, after Hammersmith and Fulham council's environmental health team investigated complaints from customers that they had been unwell after eating at the site in 2014, as reported by local newspaper Get West London.

Food preparation surfaces were found to be dirty, along with dirty chopping boards and fridge handles. Cooked food was not protected from raw food, the business had no safety paperwork, and animal droppings were found in the back store.

Erpolat was also ordered to pay costs of £4,327.50 and a £120 victim surcharge. He has also previously been charged with similar offences at his Ealing site, but the group's area manager, Meral Cetin, has since claimed that the problems at the group were now in the past.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt, Hammersmith and Fulham cabinet member for environment, commented: "When customers eat out the very least they can expect is food that doesn't make them ill. And these failings are also unfair on the vast majority of businesses who invest properly in proper hygiene standards to keep residents safe."
Woody Grill also operates two sites in Kilburn, Willesden, Acton, and Watford.

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