THE owner of a Cwmbran restaurant appeared in court yesterday charged with failing to follow basic food hygiene rules.

Mohammed Badsha Miah, 37, of Chepstow Road, Langstone, runs the Tamarind on Blenheim Road in St Dials.

He appeared at Cwmbran Magistrates Court yesterday on trial for 15 offences relating to food hygiene and health and safety breaches alleged to have occurred between September 2009 and March 2010. Miah denies the charges.

The court heard evidence from Lewis Smith, a senior environmental health officer for Torfaen Council, who had carried out three inspections at the Indian restaurant during that period.

Magistrates were shown a series of photographs taken during the inspection on September 29, 2009.

These included uncovered food in the chest freezer, an uncovered pan of curry sauce on the cellar floor resting on cardboard and a large number of flies caught in the electric fly killer.

The court heard letters had been sent to Miah outlining the inspector’s concerns.

But when he next visited on November 18, 2009, Mr Smith said the conditions he found more or less mirrored what he had found before.

He said a sink remained as dirty and as mouldy as it had been on the previous inspection and another uncovered pan of curry sauce was found in a rear corridor.

Mr Smith also told the court tubs of yoghurt were found in the cellar where the temperature was 16.2 degrees Celsius despite the storage instructions stating it should be stored below five degrees Celsius.

The court heard how during this visit Mr Smith also found boxes of prawns and frozen chicken on the cellar floor.

Mr Smith said: "I don’t feel Mr Miah had made any progress in that five or six week period between visits."

Miah was invited by the council’s environmental health team to go for an interview about what had been found and had also been sent letters and given advice.

Mr Smith told the court that Miah had committed years of non-compliance.

"These are basic food hygiene rules, it’s not rocket science," he said.

But Mr Smith said an inspection of the premises in September last year did show a "big turn around" and said it was "much improved".

Proceeding.