Crema Espresso Franchising fined $20,000 for Food Act breaches

The owner of an Indooroopilly cafe has been fined and reprimanded heavily after 50 live and dead cockroaches were found on a Brisbane premises.

The franchise company behind a Indooroopilly cafe has been fined thousands of dollars after 50 live and dead cockroaches were found on the premises.

Crema Espresso Franchising and sole director Antony Forbutt were this month found guilty of six breaches each of the Food Act following a hearing.

Brisbane Magistrates Court heard an inspection of Crema Espresso Indooroopilly in 2020 found a nest of 20 live cockroaches under a fridge, an accumulation of live and dead cockroaches next to the kitchen sink and on the floor and four dead cockroaches and faeces inside a cabinet in the customer service area.

Crema Espresso Franchising fined after cockroaches found at its Indooroopilly store.

Magistrate Judith Daley said the premises was unclean.

“I find that the accumulation of dead cockroaches, grease, dust and other visible matter shows that parts of the kitchen were not cleaned regularly,” she said in her decision.

“These risks were foreseeable, certainly the cockroach problem was known and would have been avoided with reasonable care.”

But she accepted that after the inspection the company hired a new pest controller and the cockroach infestation was addressed.

During the inspection a store manager said cleaning and sanitising was done every two hours and washed food contact surfaces with hot soapy water. The woman told the inspector “hiding spots” were checked weekly but Ms Daley found this difficult to accept given “a nest of 20 live cockroaches” were discovered under the fridge.

The court heard the store manager said they had managed to keep the cockroach problem “under control” and had changed pest control treatment from quarterly to monthly. At the time of the inspection the treatment was two weeks overdue.

“Monthly treatments were not effective, more regular treatments were needed at least until the infestation was under control,” Ms Daley said.

Magistrate Judith Daley found Crema Espresso Franchising did not have an effective cleaning process at its Indoorpilly store.

Crema Espresso Franchising was fined after cockroaches found at its Indooroopilly store.

A weekly cleaning and sanitising schedule were also tendered as evidence by the defence but Ms Daley gave it little weight.

“I am not satisfied that Crema had an effective cleaning process,” she said

Ms Daley found Mr Forbutt, as sole director, did not take all reasonable steps to ensure the company did not breach the Food Act.

Council prosecutor Michael Spencer said the offending was serious due to the presence of live cockroaches in the kitchen and the subsequent risk to public health through contamination.

Barrister Matt Jackson said his client co-operated via representations made to council and the store manager‘s interview with the inspector.

Mr Jackson said it was open to find his clients had taken steps towards substantial compliance with the law through cleaning and changing pest control companies.

Crema Espresso Franchising fined after cockroaches found at its Indooroopilly store.

He said cockroaches weren’t found where the food was prepared in the kitchen and the breaches were at the lower end of seriousness.

“This was not reckless indifference or wilful blindness to the regulatory regime,” he said.

Mr Jackson said the company had been hit hard by Covid-19.

In 2018 there were 20 stores, six owned by the company and the rest were franchises paying royalties, with a head office of eight employees

There were now 10 stores in total, two owned by the company.

Mr Jackson said the stores were making a quarter of pre-Covid profit.

The Indooroopilly cafe had been operating since 2016 and received a three star rating after audits in that year and 2018.

There were no previous convictions.

Ms Daley fined the company $20,000 and Mr Forbutt $2000. No convictions were recorded.