10:30am Wednesday 3rd June 2009
By Andrew Bellard
THE owners of a shisha café have pleaded guilty to allowing the premises to be used for smoking.
The Oceana Café Bar, Darwen Street, Blackburn, fell foul of anti-smoking laws when they were first introduced.
Now two members of a new management team have been prosecuted for allowing the smoking of shisha pipes in upstairs rooms.
Mobin Ugradar, of Johnston Street, Blackburn, and Naeem Ugradar, of Rhyl Avenue, Blackburn, both pleaded guilty to failing to prevent smoking in smoke free premises.
Speaking after the case, a spokesman for the cafe said the upstairs section had been sublet by the owners to a man who had now left.
Mobin Ugradar was fined £120 with £527 costs and Naeem Ugradar was fined £90 with £527 costs.
Carol Curtin, prosecuting for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, said that when enforcement officers visited the premises on October 16 there were men and women sitting round shisha pipes.
The following day, when Naeem Ugradar was in charge, enforcement officers found a group of males smoking in a room on the first floor and two groups smoking in rooms up another flight of stairs. The officers decided to leave after a group of males started to become aggressive.
Both defendants pleaded guilty by letter and said they had only been involved with the business for about eight months.
They said they weren’t fully aware of the legislation. Mobin said customers were demanding the service and the business was not doing well and needed all the custom it could generate.
Shisha is a Middle East tradition in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt, passed through a water vessel and inhaled through a hose.
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