Restaurant fined £70,000 after boy's hand trapped in mincer

12 May 2022 by
Restaurant fined £70,000 after boy's hand trapped in mincer

A restaurant director has been given fines totalling more than £70,000 after an eight-year-old boy suffered life-changing injuries when his hand became trapped in a mincer.

The incident happened in the kitchen of Gokyuzu restaurant in London's Walthamstow on 7 April 2019.

Environmental health officers investigating found that the in-built fixed guard to the mincing machine had been removed with a mechanical angle grinder, which allowed the child's hand to became trapped in the cutting mechanism.

They also discovered the restaurant had no written risk assessments, records of training or other safety procedures.

At the hearing at Stratford Magistrates' Court, the director of Gokyuzu, Veysel Yavuz, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to ensure the safety of employees and one count of failing to ensure dangerous machinery had the required safety measures in place. A third charge of failing to control access to the kitchen was dropped.

Deputy leader of Waltham Forest Council, Clyde Loakes, said: "This incident has left a young child with life-changing injuries – and all because Gokyuzu Walthamstow failed in their health and safety obligations by removing the safety guard from their mincing machine.

"This case and the punishment handed down should be a reminder to all businesses of their duties to customers, staff and visitors – we will prosecute those that fail in their duties."

In total, Gokyuzu and Yavuz were fined £70,000 with costs of £16,557.27 awarded to the council.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking