Brent Council issues warning after catching out proprietors in Kingsbury, Kensal Green and Willesden

Brent & Kilburn Times: Brent Council are warning shisha bar ownersBrent Council are warning shisha bar owners (Image: Archant)

A shisha bar owner has been fined and has had his smoking pipes confiscated after he was caught allowing customers to smoke indoors for the second time in six months.

Mohammed Faiz Azim was hauled before the courts again after a routine inspection of VIP Shisha Lounge, in Kingsbury Road, Kingsbury, found customers were still being allowed to flout the smoking ban.

Willesden Magistrates’ Court heard the bar was visited by officers from Brent Council’s Consumer and Business Protection Team, together with HM Revenue and Customs and the police.

Azim was also found to be serving shisha pipes without the legally-required health warning and he failed to produce proof that duty had been paid on his tobacco products.

He pleaded guilty to breaking smoke free regulations and received fines and costs totalling £1,550.

Magistrates also ordered shisha pipes to be forfeited and destroyed.

Last September he was fine £515.

Two other bar owners were also convicted by Brent Council in the last few weeks resulting in a total of seven prosecutions since August 2011.

Osman Hersi was fined a total of £1,020 after customers were found smoking shisha pipes during a routine inspection of O Lounge II in Harrow Road, Kensal Green.

He admitted to failing to prevent persons smoking in his premises after previously claiming that he was trading as a ‘specialist tobacconist’ and was therefore exempt from the smoking ban.

Tariq Walid Alhamzawy owner of Arabian Night Moon Light in High Road, Willesden, was sentenced in his absence.

He and his company, Arabian Night Moon Light Ltd, were ordered to pay a total of £3,966 in fines and costs.

Cllr Lincoln Beswick, Brent’s lead member for crime and public safety, is warning shisha bar owners they will continue their clampdown on those that flout the smoking ban.

He said: “We are determined to protect local people’s health and are working hard to ensure that shisha bars abide by the smoke-free legislation.

“I am warning shisha bar owners that we will continue checking up on them and will prosecute if necessary, which can result in fines of up to £2,500.”

The council estimates that the number of shisha bars in the borough has risen from approximately 12 in 2009 to more than 50.

According to Cancer Research UK, a typical hour-long shisha session can see users inhale the same amount of smoke as from more than 100 cigarettes.

In addition, shisa tobacco contains 36 times more tar and twice as much nicotine as cigarette tobacco so is more addictive and carries a far greater risk of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.