Inn the Park restaurant fined for breaching food safety rules

Oliver Peyton's Inn the Park restaurant in London's St James's Park has been fined £5,000 for breaching food safety regulations.

The restaurant was charged with the penalty after environmental health officers from Westminster City Council found its kitchen and food stores overrun with mice in November 2006.

Inn the Park pleaded guilty to five offences and was fined £1,000 for each. A further five charges against restaurant director Siobhan Peyton were dropped.

Richard Block, operations manager for food, health and safety at Westminster City Council, said Inn the Park's offences were "extremely serious".

"Mice were running around the kitchen and corridors and the company failed to deal with the problem effectively despite a risk to the health of their diners," he said.

"We hope this prosecution and fine will serve as a lesson that it is not good enough to try and blame individual members of staff for food hygiene breaches - as happened in this case."

The restaurant was closed by Westminster health inspectors but was allowed to re-open after works were carried out to remove any serious risk to public safety.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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