SUPERSTORE bosses have been fined more than £20,000 and told they will never manage a food business again after admitting a catalogue of food safety offences.

The company which owns Marwa Superstore, a company director and former manager of the Slough High Street shop have been sentenced for a total of 40 hygiene offences.

It comes after the store was shut down in 2012 as a health risk to the public when inspectors found it 'overrun with mice’, among other shocking hygiene standards.

Despite warnings from the council, further inspections uncovered more hygiene breaches and the workers were sentenced at Slough Magistrates’ Court on Thursday last week (25).

Ann Stewart, food safety manager at Slough Borough Council, said: “Marwa clearly haven’t learned their lessons because, despite repeated warnings and food safety rating of zero, a lot of the problems we found were similar to the ones that led to its closure two years ago.” She said inspectors found no hot water available in wash hand basins, rat droppings on pallets of bottled water and cardboard covered in blood and meat remnants. “Marwa failed to improve to a satisfactory standard, despite the support offered by the council,” she added. “Their lack of regard for their customers’ health is worrying and I hope this hefty sentence finally makes them realise how serious their failings have been.” Noor Al-Huda Ltd, the owner of Marwa Superstore, was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £8,134.85 costs for 20 offences.

Raghad Kadham, a company director, was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £500 costs for 14 offences. Mahdi Bourhan, described as the day-to-day manager, was fined £420 and ordered to pay £500 costs for six offences.

All three were prohibited from being involved in the management of any food business, with immediate effect.

Cllr Sohail Munawar, commissioner for social and economic inclusion with a responsibility for food safety, said: “We sometimes see stores where standards have slipped, which is bad enough. But to simply ignore the laws that are there to protect us, like Marwa did, is totally unacceptable.

“To make matters worse they were given plenty of opportunity to improve and they didn’t. So, it’s only right they are penalised in this way.” The store is now under new management. It is still rated as zero, but new manager Fardin Khan told The Observer earlier this month that construction, staff training and hygiene programmes are underway. “Hopefully we will have improved by the next inspection,” he added.