Health authorities say that Canberra's dodgy restaurants have been put on notice after a court quadrupled the fines imposed on an inner north eatery caught preparing food in ''Third World'' conditions.
The territory's chief food inspector said his staff had been taunted by other shonky operators who scoffed about a ''slap on the wrist'' after Dickson's Tak Kee Roast was fined just $1500 in June for its extreme unhygienic conditions.
But Director of ACT Health's Health Protection Service John Woollard and his inspectors had the last laugh yesterday when their appeal to the Supreme Court ended with Tak Kee owner Kin Wah Wong's fines increased to nearly $7000.
The restaurant was fined $1500 by Special Magistrate Ken Cush in June, for three food handling offences.
Mr Cush heard that a health inspector was on the balcony of the Dickson Backpackers when she noticed meat defrosting and vegetables being prepared in a car park behind the Woolley Street restaurant on February 26, 2009.
The food was unattended on a chopping board, exposed to the weather and wild birds.
In the kitchen, inspectors found dirty walls, floors and ceilings filthy and greasy with decaying food and rubbish throughout the premises.
For more on this story, including a comment comparing the Tak Kee set up with third world countries, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
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