Middlesbrough smoking lounge fined... for pipe smoking

Staff at the lounge were seen preparing, lighting and serving customers lit shisha pipes in enclosed areas of the establishment during an unannounced visit by Environmental Health officers to Manjaros Shisha Lounge, in Middlesbrough.

Rafkit Ali Khan, 40, company director of Acorn Restaurants Limited, which owns the Linthorpe Road venue, appeared in Teesside Magistrates’ Court this week and pleaded guilty to failing to prevent customers from smoking in a smoke-free place.

During the visit on March 17 this year, customers used shisha, or water-pipes, to smoke a number of substances, mainly flavoured or non-flavoured tobacco or herbal mixtures.

Charcoal is burnt before inhaling the mixture of the coal and tobacco smoke, drawn through a bowl of water and into a hose that customers use to inhale through the mouth.

A man smoking a shisha pipe, picture for illustrative purposes only. Picture: PIXABAY

Under the Health Act 2006, smoking tobacco or anything which contains tobacco, or smoking any other substance, in an enclosed or substantially enclosed premises breaks the law.

Magistrates fined Acorn Restaurants Limited £700 for failing to stop smoking in an enclosed space, alongside £688.20 court costs and a £90 victim surcharge.

Khan also pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to providing facilities and equipment for smoking in a smoke-free place, thereby intending to encourage and assist offences of smoking, and was fined a further £900.

The 40-year-old shisha lounge boss was also fined £230 and ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge during his court appearance on Tuesday for failing to prevent customers from smoking in a smoke-free place.

Judith Hedgley, Middlesbrough Council’s head of public protection, said: “Smoking in enclosed places or in areas that are more than 50 per cent enclosed has been illegal for more than 10 years.  

“Manjaros had an outside balcony area which could be used legally as a smoking area.

“However when the officers visited the shutters were down and customers were being allowed to smoke in an area of the premises which was fully enclosed.”

Acorn Restaurants Limited was fined and ordered to pay court costs totalling £2,638.20 for the breaches of smoking laws.

Councillor Julia Rostron, Middlesbrough Council’s executive member for adult social care and public health, said: “Shisha is a tobacco product and there are some very significant health risks to those people who smoke shisha pipes and to others who are exposed to the smoke.

“We want to ensure the safety of the public and the staff who work in these premises.

“Environmental Health officers check that the smoke-free laws are being followed when they visit businesses in Middlesbrough.

“Anyone caught smoking in a smoke-free place or allows smoking in such places will be committing an offence and may be issued with a fixed penalty notice or prosecuted.”