Les Bubbles kitchen ‘infested with rodents’

EMBATTLED restaurateur Damian Griffiths was today fined $3000 and a company which operated a popular Brisbane restaurant was fined $30,000 after food safety authorities swooped in following a customer’s complaint.

Damian Griffiths was fined $3000 and Limes Properties Pty Ltd was fined $30,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of food standards.

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A CUSTOMER dobbed in popular Brisbane restaurant Les Bubbles to food safety authorities after a rat scurried past her during the dinner rush, a court has been told.

Embattled restaurateur Damian Griffiths was today fined $3000 and company Limes Properties Pty Ltd was fined $30,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of food standards.

Griffiths was overseas when the case was mentioned in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last week, and did not appear in person today.

Instead, his lawyer made submissions in writing to the court to say Griffiths was “simply unaware of what was going on” at his former restaurant when the rat was discovered in October, 2016.

Les Bubbles is now under new management and a spokesperson says all checks and pest inspections were now up to date.

Brisbane City Council prosecutor Andrea Lopez said it was irrelevant if he was aware or not, and revealed it was a customer who raised the alarm with authorities.

“A live rodent during a busy dinner rush has actually run across the room in the restaurant,” she said.

“The rodent has been quite comfortable in the food business.”

Subsequently, food safety inspectors claimed to find dirty equipment and rodent droppings in multiple areas including under the kitchen bench, under a downstairs bar and near the dishwashing area.

Ms Lopez said the rat droppings indicated “quite a large presence of rodent activity”.

“A kitchen that is infested with rodents is neither safe nor suitable,” she said.

“Rodents have the capacity to transmit quite unpleasant and horrible diseases and bacteria to humans.”

Griffiths is no longer a director of Limes Properties Pty Ltd, which was operating Les Bubbles at the time.

A spokesperson for the restaurant confirmed last week it was under new management and all checks and pest inspections were up to date.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Terry Gardiner noted rat traps were also found at the restaurant, indicating management were aware of the problem.

“It appears that rodent traps were positioned in the restaurant in an inept attempt to solve the problem,” he said.

He said significant fines were justified, but did not record a conviction for Griffiths or Limes Properties as neither had a history of food safety breaches.

The court was told the restaurant was cleaned up within 24 hours of authorities swooping in.

It comes after creditors voted earlier this month to tip Bubbles Bar and Bistro into liquidation with $1.32 million in debts following a scathing administrator’s report which claimed the company “may have been insolvent from as early as December 2015”.

In December, a District Court judge ordered Griffiths to pay back relatives more than $550,000 after he defaulted on a loan related to the Limes Hotel.

Receivers are currently in charge of his former venues Limes Hotel and the Alfred & Constance Hotel.

He has retained his stake in Doughnut Time.