The bosses behind a North East restaurant chain are facing a bill of more than £16,000 over a string of food hygiene failings and staff right to work checks.
Ahmed Mohamed Hussein Sayed and Oksana Sayed have been ordered to pay up after inspectors found a “serious risk to public health” at its Durham restaurant and Meadowfield warehouse.
Hygiene failings at the sites, laid bare at Peterlee Magistrates Court, included inadequate cleaning, risks of food contamination, and rodent droppings and a dead rat.
These all created an “immediate risk to public health”.
Two members of staff at the North Bailey restaurant were also found with no right to work.
Lebaneat - which also previously had a restaurant in Yarm until its sudden closure in February 2025 - was issued voluntary closure orders until works were carried out.
Durham County Council took legal action against two companies - Lebaneat (Yarm) Limited and O&A International Limited - over the findings.
During the visit to the North Bailey site, officers were told the business’ operator had changed from O&A International Limited to Lebaneat (Yarm) Limited.
However, this change had not been registered with the council.
Magistrates heard that licensing officers also carried out a separate inspection of the restaurant where they found that training records had not been logged for two years.
Additional Home Office checks confirmed that two members of staff had ‘no right to work’.
Lebaneat (Yarm) Limited and director Oksana Sayed were found guilty of two counts for the North Bailey site, of failing to keep the premises clean and of failing to register Lebaneat (Yarm) Limited with the council.
O&A International and Oksana Sayed were also found guilty of four counts for the Meadowfield site, of failing to keep the premises clean, failing to ensure all stages of production were protected against contamination, failing to notify the council of each establishment under its control, and failing to put in place and maintain Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point procedures.
Lebaneat (Yarm) Limited and O&A International Limited were each ordered to pay a fine of £4,800, a £1,920 victim surcharge, and £850 costs, resulting in a combined total of £15,140.
Ahmed Sayed, as licence holder for the North Bailey site, was found guilty of failing to carry out right to work checks on all potential employees and of failing to ensure staff were fully trained and retrained on a three-monthly basis.
As director of the companies, Oksana Sayed was ordered to pay an additional £832 fine and £332 victim surcharge, totalling £1,164.
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Mark Anslow, Durham County Council’s health and environmental protection manager, said: “These inspections found conditions that posed a serious risk to public health as well as significant licensing failures.
“Food businesses have a legal responsibility to maintain safe, clean premises and to always comply with food hygiene and licensing requirements.
“Where these standards are not met, we will take robust enforcement action to protect members of the public.”
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