Boy suffers life-changing illness after 50 are poisoned at market town kebab shop
More than 50 customers were poisoned by contaminated food served by a South Wales kebab shop whose bosses have now been ordered to pay £10,000.
Eleven of them were hospitalised by a shigella outbreak in Abergavenny, including an 11-year-old boy who suffered a ‘life-changing illness’.
He now has has type 1 diabetes after becoming unwell due to the ‘failures’ of Sami Abdullah, 46, and Hassan Saritag, 38, who ran Maramaris Kebab House.
Others experienced ‘vomiting, fevers, terrible stomach cramps and blood in their diarrhoea’, Public Health Wales said.
The food contaminated by shigella bacteria, which causes an intestinal infection, was ‘positively linked’ to the takeaway, an investigation found. The business is now under new ownership.
Although it is not life-threatening, it can result in hospitalisation, with symptoms lasting four to five days.
Its outbreak may have been caused by a failure to separate washed and unwashed vegetables while preparing coleslaw, Newport Magistrates Court heard.
However, the exact cause could not be determined.
Both takeaway director Mr Abdullah, and business partner Mr Saritag, pleaded guilty to placing unsafe food on the market, failing to implement food safety procedures, and failing to register new owners at the business.
District Judge Sophie Toms said the pair failure to ‘keep people safe’, instead ‘breaking the trust of people in Abergavenny and causing significant harm’.
Scott Tuppen, defending Mr Abdullah, said: ‘Mr Abdullah offers his deepest apologies to those affected and in particular those who suffered permanently.’
David Leathley, defending Mr Saritag, claimed ‘nobody saw this coming’, in reference to what he called an ‘isolated breach’.
The court ordered Mr Abdullah, from Cwmbran, to pay a £2,00 fine, while Mr Saritag, from Abergavenny, must pay a £3,065 fine.
Both have also been ordered to pay £2,792 in costs.
Judge Toms said: ‘Penalties you will face will be financial but I also appreciate you lost your good character and good names.’
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