A Coventry food business and its sole director have been given huge fines after pleading guilty to Council food hygiene offences.
Palm by H2O Limited, 10 Spon Street, Coventry and Mr Mohammed Naveed pleaded guilty to the offences at Coventry Magistrates Court on 15 September 2025 and appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court on 9 December 2025 for sentencing.
Palm by H2O Ltd were fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,186.55 plus a £2,000 victim surcharge. Mr Naveed received a fine of £6,500 and was ordered to pay costs of £10,186.55 plus a £2000 victim surcharge.
In June 2024, the Council’s Food and Safety Team were notified that 29 individuals had developed gastrointestinal symptoms after eating at Palm by H2O.
The nature of the reported symptoms were very severe and included blood in stools, sickness, fainting and fever which had resulted in some of the affected individuals being hospitalised for a number of days.
An investigation was launched by the Council team in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency, which subsequently confirmed that 17 of the 18 collected stool samples were infected by the same strain of Salmonella, which had not been seen before in the UK.
Aside from eating at the restaurant, no other factors common to all individuals could explain their infection.
Officers attended the restaurant and observed poor hygiene practices by staff working in the kitchen, including:
- The absence of evidence of appropriate handwashing.
- A failure to appreciate the risks associated with storing and handling raw meat.
- A lack of appropriate training.
- Failure to protect food against contamination.
As a result of the findings, Mr Naveed agreed to voluntarily shut the restaurant until food safety conditions had been improved to the satisfaction of the investigating officers.
The premises was rescored at the time of the visit and moved from a food hygiene rating of 5 (very good) to a 1 (major improvement necessary). Subsequently, Palm by H2O paid and applied for a rescoring revisit and as the improved conditions had been maintained, a rating of 5 was awarded on 19 August 2024.
Officers inspected the premises again on 14 January 2025 and found very good conditions had been maintained and the score of 5 was retained.
The offences to which Palm by H2O Ltd and Mr Naveed pleaded guilty were:
- Placing food on the market that was unsafe due to the presence of Salmonella organisms.
- Failure to protect food against any contamination likely to render the food unfit for human consumption, injurious to health or contaminated in such a way that it would be unreasonable to expect it to be consumed in that state.
- Failure to ensure that food handlers were supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity.
Sadly, the food poisoning outbreak has had a profound and long-lasting effect upon many of the individuals who contracted the Salmonella strain and many of them are still suffering now with physical and mental repercussions of their diagnoses.
The people became very ill having eating at Palm by H2O. Given the absence of measures in place to prevent cross-contamination in the kitchen, and the total lack of food hygiene understanding demonstrated by those working at the restaurant, especially concerning the storage and handling of raw meat, this is unfortunately unsurprising.
Food safety officers inspect food businesses in the city and issue food hygiene ratings to ensure consumers can make informed decisions on where to eat and purchase food and people can check out their favourite businesses by going online at https://ratings.food.gov.uk/
Davina Blackburn, Strategic Lead for Regulation and Communities in the city, said: “We take a staged approach to enforcement and prosecution is a matter of last resort. Wherever possible officers will always try to work with businesses offering advice and guidance but will take the necessary actions if they feel there is a risk to health.”
“It is vital that people running food businesses in Coventry are running clean and safe establishments all of the time to ensure the safety of the food they sell to customers.”
We would encourage all residents to report unsatisfactory food hygiene conditions found in food businesses in Coventry to ehcommercial@coventry.gov.uk or call 08085 834333
Please note the pictures contained in this article were taken at the time of the initial inspection and do not reflect the current state of the business.