Restaurant fined for poor health standards

The owners of a restaurant in Macquarie, in Canberra's north-west, have been fined $4,800 after their business was closed by health inspectors earlier this year.

The ACT Magistrates Court has heard the kitchen in the restaurant was in a poor state, with a freezer raised on bricks, a deep fryer sitting on grease soaked cardboard and a build up of kitchen rubbish.

Magistrate David Mossop also noted a cat's tail had been photographed by inspectors in a gap which also left the building open vermin.

Lawyers for the owners, women aged 62 and 40, told the court the inspection came as they were in the process of cleaning and preparing to open for the new year.

Magistrate Mossop told the court in fining the pair he took into account the $20,000 they have spent to improve the kitchen.

Source: ABC News, 6 August 2012